大象传媒

I was three and a half when war broke out and lived with my Mother in Meadowmead Avenue, Shirley. I remember vividly the air raids and the time (many hous at a time) that I spent in our shelter at the bottom of the garden which we shared with our next door neighbour. The shelter was fitted out with 4 bunks and it was like living in a house. The only thing was that my mother had an electric kettle which was always filled with water and plugged in ready to switch on in between the "All Clear" siren and the "Alarm" going off again. This kettle took 3mins. to boil and often the siren would go off again before it boiled. My mother still had that kettle when she died six year's ago in N.Z. at the age of 101 years. We would try to go out shopping during the day when there were no raids, but on one occasion I remember her trying to shelter me from the sight of an airman caught in electrical wires somewhere near a home of some sort. We were lucky that at times when the raids were at their worst we would go toa house that she had at Parley which was near Hurn Airodrome outside of Bournemouth. I don't know when but whilst there on one visit our house was bombed on a Saturday night and on the Monday she went up to Southampton and had all our furniture removed and put into storage in Bournemouth. The following Saturday night after another set of bad air raids, the house was demolished leaving only the front room fireplace and the front door. The house was eventually rebuilt but by that time had decided to live in Bournemouth until we emigrated to Australia in 1956.

I hope that this short story may be of help to you and I would be happy to answer any questions you have.

I am researching "Air Raids" for a presentation I have to do in the study of 20th. Century History and came across your website.

Ann Monagle

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