大象传媒

This account was taken from Phyllis Rodgers by Denis Price of The 大象传媒 People's War Team, The 大象传媒 Open Centre,Queen's Gardens, Hull.

I was nine years old when the War began and together with my eight year old brother we were avacuated to Heslington near York from our home in Hull. We stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Ward who were farmers. The farm was in the village of Heslington. We were very lucky at staying with such kind people. Mr. Ward said we looked like orphans, we were pale and pasty. We'd been travelling all day and were tired out. I remember drinking milk straight from the cow. We'd thought milk came from a bottle, it really built us up.
I helped in the kitchen and my brother worked on light farm work. The war was all around us and the sky was full of aircraft from nearby airfields and Heslington Hall was a big RAF Headquarters. We were there two years until mother in her wisdom decided to bring us home. We didn't want to leave, we had a lovely life and were very happy.
We came back to Hull to be bombed. We lived down Wellstead Street , Hessle Road and I remember a mobile anti- aircraft gun which always seemed to be going off at the end of our terrace. We never seemed to get a night's sleep. During the air raids we stayed in our own house and not in a shelter. Mother said we might as well die in our own beds if we were going to die! I'd pull the eiderdown over my head as protection when the bombers came over.
I remember when the landmine went off down Bean Street nearby, killing lots of people. The blast sent soot down our chimney as we were all sat eating bread and dripping and drinking cocoa. I was still cutting bread but the shock made me cut my thumb which is still scarred. I couldn't go to Hull Royal Infirmary with Granny because the raid had stopped all the trams so Granny put her own dressing on it, we were still covered in soot!
My worst war-time memory was one afternoon, I was at Constable Street School which is near Scarborough Street School. There was a raid on so we were all in the shelter. When the all clear sounded we all started to leave the shelter when our teacher shouted telling us all to get back in. A lone German aeroplane approached firing his machine guns at the children leaving the shelters at Scarborough Street School. They hadn't been told to go back in as we had. Lots of them were killed and injured..
Even though there were good times there were some sad ones with grim sights. People were left with nothing after the bombing, it was all very sad.

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