大象传媒

Part 2 - My mother had to go out at night doing Fire Watching, and make sure no light was showing at windows, we had blackout curtains, it was quite serious to show lights at night so the enemy couldn't see buildings. Only relatives were allowed into Coventry after the bombing because it was so horrific, my father came from there, although he didn't live with us. I can remember playing with all our gasmasks in the shed. The ration books were blue for a child and beige for adults. When I was about 5 or 6 years old I can remember going with my mother to the pub and being given chewing gum by U.S. servicement based in the area, probably at Whittington Barracks near Lichfield about 6 miles away. We used to receive a food parcel every 6 weeks from my grandmother's sister in Melbourne, Australia, with barley sugar for me, and dried fruit and sugar included, I loved opening them full of excitement. After the war I remember the shelter along our road being knocked down by a huge ball on the end of a crane. My mother had a friend Bing Cartwright, a pilot in the RAF. She said she last saw him in September 1940, before I was born, and he was shot down coming back from bombing Hamburg, an only child of 21 years old! My grandmother used to say if ever the Germans invaded England she planned to take a pill to kill herself rather than be ruled by them! Thankfully, she didn't have to and lived to be 84, a lovely lady.

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