大象传媒

In 1942 during the Exeter blitz I was eight years old. Of course I thought it was very exciting. I lived with my parents in Argyl Road, which is on a hill above the city. We had a glorious view of Exeter and the surrounding Haldon Hills. My father was a solicitor and at that time assistant to Mr Newman the Town Clerk. This was 'a Reserved Occupation' thus he was not called up for military service.
We had many hasardous nights under the kitchen table during various raids,and my father had often go to Stoke Post for fire watching three or four times a week. but the Blitz was'something else'!A massive armada of enemy planes came over and plastered the Haldon Hills with flares and incendary bombs. They realised almost immediatly that they had missed the ciy and came back the next night and sadly hit Exeter plumb dead centre. We lost electricity,gas,water within the first few minutes. My father put on his ARP Warden tin helmet and went to his designated post. This happened to be the village hall in Pinhoe, an outlying area of Exeter not touched by bombs. (This hall later became on Wednesday evenings the meeting place for the Pinhoe Young Conservatives. We seemed in the fifties to do nothing else but dance to a wind-up gramaphone! Until very recently, until the housing estate was built, this was the local rifle range. But on this occasion this was designated a Mortuary. My father was in charge and had to collate the 'bits of bodies' that were brought in. Having said this, Exeter was very lucky that only approx 200 people lost their lives., but the centre was flattened.One small bomb hit a chapel attached to the Cathedral but the magnificent building survived. After two days of camping at home my mother and I went on our bicycles to a farm near Chagford for two weeks to wait for the services to be put back. My father commuted often in his little Morris open tourer out to us. He had enough petrol for his official Exeter duties and a little extra left over to occasionally visit us.
Up to the Nomandy landings and after almost every day a fleet of bombers would appear from behind trees having taken off from Exeter Airport--circle and land again. Then they would again take-off and be away for hours. Then we know they had been dropping bombs in France or Germany. We would count them back and there would always be some missing. After a daylight raid by three German fighters who tried to machinegun our row of houses in Argyl rd, a Spitfire dived out of the sun and chased them away over Exmouth. It came back and did a double victory roll. Cheering in the street and waving flags because he got two of them! Much later an enormous bonfire on VE day at the entrance to our road.
Memories of a child at the time. Exciting things happened during the war!

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