大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Clive Bishop of the CSV Action Desk, 大象传媒 Radio Newcastle on behalf of Dorothy Dawson and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was living in South Lambeth, London, when the war broke out. I saw a lot of changes and disasters. Just three weeks after the start of the war the siren went and our family was amazed to see a mortar cocktail fire bomb land on the phone wires leading into our upstairs window and just slide along it, we thought it was going to come through the window, but it fell off just before and landed on the doorstep. The fire warden rushed with sand to put it out. That was the start when things really got going. We were having air raids day and night.

At that time I worked in a factory near Vauxhall and went to work by train. The factory roof got blasted, so we worked under sheeting. It was very cold and draughty. We used to go down into the cellar under the factory when there was an air raid. The management had it fitted with a piano and provided food so that we could stay for some time when needed.
A few weeks into the war we had a land mine land just along the road from the street where I lived, it flattened all that area. A few weeks later my home got a severe blast, when an aerial torpedo landed on the house at the back of ours and flattened it and killed the two women living in it. It also killed our milkman who lived six doors down from us and was in his back yard at the time.
We heard the whistle of the bomb, so new it was coming, we were upstairs; all the walls and ceilings fell around us. It was 8 o鈥檆lock in the evening, the siren never went till after the bomb had fallen so we had no warning. The blast had torn up the lamp post at the back of our house and it landed in the front of our house, so we were really lucky.
They managed to get the damaged furniture down into the front room at the bottom of the house and board it up. We lived with my Gran for six weeks, until we got a house in Battersea.

While I lived in Battersea we still kept getting raids, one bomb fell on the Odeon Cinema, at the top of the street where I used to live. The Wizard of Ozz was on at the time and several people I new were there and were killed or injured. Another fell on the greengrocer鈥檚 shop and cut it in half, you could still see the mirror on the wall above the fire place.
One lunch time I went out for lunch and saw the Spitfires fighting over the Thames as Vauxhall isn鈥檛 far from Westminster, so I think that was the battle of Britain.

I felt I needed to do something more useful during the war, so I left the factory and went on the railways as a goods porter, it was hard work but I was only there for three months as I got called up in 1941 when I was 21, just five days after my birthday.

Part 2 鈥� after the call up

In 1941 I got called up when I was 21, just five days after my birthday. I had the choice of going into the forces or into a factory for War Work, I chose War Work. I was sent to the Royal Ordinance Factory at Swinnerton, in Staffordshire. There were girls there from all parts of the country. There were five hostels. At first I lived in a hostel called Nelson Hall, but at the end of the first year we had to move out and let the Americans have it.

We were split up into other hostels. The girls were divided into 鈥渉ouses鈥� and all the girls in Kerry house, including me, went into Anthony house at Drake Hall. There was also a Raleigh Hall and a Frobisher Hall. Some of the girls went into these.
The Americans already had Howard Hall.

Bob Hope came and entertained the Americans at Howard Hall. I met President Roosevelt鈥檚 wife when she came to visit our factory.
I have many happy memories of the three and a half years I spent at Swinnerton, we had to work hard, three shifts, 6.00am-2.00pm, 2.00pm-10.00pm and 10.00pm-6.00am. I made many friends, most have passed on now, or I have lost touch, but I still keep in touch with the girl who was my bridesmaid.

I still never escaped the bombs, I did while I was away working but home on leave I still experienced some unpleasant times. I was home one weekend and had a V2 land on the air raid shelter in our street, it killed everyone in it, we just got a bit of the blast to the doors and windows. Living so near to Battersea Power Station we got a lot round there. While I was away my parents got blasted again, and had to move again.

I left in November 1945, married an airman in December, who I met there, and we came to live in his home town Newcastle upon Tyne. I am now 85

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