大象传媒

I in 1940 I lived in Swansea, February 19th, 20th and 21st we were bombed three nights on the trot. I remember it because of the fires it started. Right at the bottom of our garden was the school, why I mention that was because it was a big black building and it stood out, Now the one night we heard like all phut, phut and looked beyond the black school and we saw like land mines coming down or markers coming down and what with it being snow and the red it reminded me of Christmas, because you know what we children were like because weren't very old. We went down in the shelter now for three nights. Now what I do remember was the crackling of the fires on the smell of smoke when we were in the shelter. After the one night we went for a walk around town, now I could never believe the was so much rubble and pile of stones. Now the one thing I do remember when we went to Swansea Castle was seeing the iron steel all bitter and twisted and I never knew that insendiaries could cause so much troble and fire, I'm told because they were phosphorous. One thing that stands out in my memory was the smell of smoke and the flames.The Y.M.C.A. was there and you can picture all holes in the road, they had to get the Fire Brigade from Hereford and I think to myself those fire engines must have belted like hell from Hereford to get to Swansea. We were told afterwards two hundred people had been killed that night and the girl next door, an Italian couple,
the young girl was out that night and we heard that she got injured, not seriously, but she went to some hospital for some treatment; we never saw her for ages. She had some balls, footballs for therapy. The sky used to be lured black and we'd lay in bed and the first thing we'd hear was mm mm mm we were told afterwards that the hienkel bombers had geared propellors and use to make a menacing sound to us. He came again in 1943 and that was the last raid.

Before February 1941 when we were at school
we heard this rat-tat-tat in class and the siren went and we all had to leave the school,and Swansea was all hills, and it was only a short run up the hill, and I remember looking towards the hill and seeing by modern standards an old fashion plane and he was swooping down over the docks, and I could still he that rat-tat-tat-tat. It appeared later on and he machine gunned dockers he killed them, six dockers, and we heard that it was policy to attack all the seaports because he knew from the first world war and with U-boats that the best way to defeat us was to starve us and hence the attack on seaports.
We went down town the next day and it did, in all fairness look a mess. Again around the bay was the Gower coast and it had R.A.F.Fairwood and you were not supposed to know what was going on we did know as plane spotters we remember the black Bull Fighters
and the Hurricanes there was a special squadron of NewFoundland there was all sorts: Polish, Norwegians, French, New Zealanders, Australians. Apparently the Bull Fighters about two of them were having a mock dog fight over Swansea Bay and the one fired his button and there was an electrical fault and he shot his mate down and they crashed at Fairwood Common. A Sterling bomber,converted for the Arnhem campaign landed at Fairwood Common: it towed the gliders. They used to set off rockets at Oyster Mouth and they went off with a hell of a woomph. They droped a bomb by Llandarcy oil works and they had to get out a bomb desposal bloke to deal with it.

As lads we use to walk around in gangs and I know I was the smallest and one day one said 'Let's go up the hill lads' ,now time bombs were droped, we were going up the hill and being the smallest and the cockiest I was way up in the front and the next minute I remember 'Oomph' and the earth going up and I hit the deck and looked and could see a mound of earth going up.What had happened was that Waters had jumped on top of me to protect me. We thought we'd better go down hill, and I looked and they were looking at asking 'are you alright' we were the bloody heroes until two months later mum found out and I was never to do that again.

I remember a bomb landing not far to the docks close to us and I think the name of the bloke was Mr.Steel and he used to have a load of pigeons, after that I don't think we saw Mr.Steel again.

On our left was Swansea Victoria Railway Station and centre was the Railway Station the line to Brynammon and to our right was the Swansea High Street and in front of it was an antiaircraft gun and a barrage balloon, the fat elephant I used to call it. One night, the night of the three raids dad was on duty that night and come home and he was moaning about the glass, and apparently what had happened the glass roof had been shattered that night completely: and it was never replaced.

Dad was the inspector and sometimes a load would arrive at Swansea Docks, it would either be tanks or if his job was ammunition he had to put a red label on the wagons. I you stood on'Harry combes'church, because he used to go there, you could see the docks and the unloading of American P38s and Thunderbolts and aircraft,they would all be covered, but we could tell because we used to look at our recognition books. The Yanks were very nice they were stationed in front of Swansea University now there's St.Georges playing fields.

One night, unusual for us, the whole family was together and an air raid went, I used to sleep with my brother, I nipped down and my brother Don he said 'Well where's Les, we've forgotten Les' my brother nipped up and woke me up in bed. I remember that detail and I remember that sirene going off and my brother always reminds me.

We used to think that oranges were fantastic when they were put in our stocking and if we had a bad chest we used to have to dripping from the beef put on our chest. I used to go shopping with Mam. Now sweet rationing came off and the post office use to sell sweets and we all rushed to sweet shop and after three days all the stall that saw were practically empty and two three days after the Goverment said they had to put sweet rationing back on.
Dad was working all day at the railway and I can see Mam now cooking and getting the meals ready all day and how she managed to do things she managed with little bits.
I was the baby of the family the was ,there were four brothers, there was me, Don, Alan, Frank and Cecil. Cecil was the eldest and he served as a ammunitioner, in the R.A.F., he used to load the bombs up.

When we thought we were winning the war the Americans brought in a U-Boat and we saw a que and we went on it for five minutes. How they could have stood it with the smell of oil and machinery.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by M.J.Greene of the B.B.C. Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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