大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Kate from High Halden Church of England Primary School and has been added to the website on behalf of Mr Jeffery Eker with his permission and they fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was seven when the war started.
I had an older brother called Leonard aged twelve and I had an older sister called Valerie who was ten at the time. The most memorable part of the war was when I was evacuated to America by boat. As a Jew my father feared for the safety of his family if the Germans invaded England and he probably never expected to see his family again. The first night I was on the ship I was diagnosed by the ship鈥檚 doctor as having mumps. As a result I was not allowed out of my cabin for the whole journey. I returned to England three years later on a neutral Portuguese ship which was lit up at night so that the German U-boats (German name for submarines) would not attack us. We left the ship at Lisbon, intending to fly back to England. The first flight carrying passengers from our ship was shot down by the Germans. One of the passengers on this flight was the famous actor Leslie Howard. Unfortunately, his agent, who was with him, looked very similar to Winston Churchill, and German spies had reported back that W.C would be on the plane.
One year later the first Doodlebugs were dispatched by the Germans.
I wasn鈥檛 scared of the Doodlebugs at the time because I did not know what they were. The first time I heard one of them I ran to the window and saw it in the sky above right in the middle of London being shot down by an R.A.F fighter plane, the Doodlebugs made a particular humming noise so when the Government told us what they were we could recognise the humming and get to the shelters in time.
Written on the 7th of July,2005.

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