大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War Site by Anne Wareing on behalf of Thomas Lewis and has been added to the site with his permission..

I was 14 when the war started, living in Beverley East Yorkshire. During the Battle of Britain, the Germans raided down the East Coast from Norway, they obviously thought it was a soft target. RAF Leconfield Aerodrome was about 3 miles away and one Saturday I was out shopping in Beverley with mum and dad when a German bomber dived down, with machine guns blasting. It almost seemed to touch the top of the Minster tower. Driffield Aerodrome was also nearby and the bombers were obviously after these military targets as well as the dockyards at Hull.

In 1941 there were extensive air raids on Hull, which was about 8 miles away. People were very disturbed, as the raids on the East Coast didn鈥檛 often seem to get a mention in the news. But on reflection I think this must have been deliberate and done to protect the large dockyards there. Too much publicity would have confirmed their success to the German bombers.

My father was a shipwright in the dockyards, employed in building Corvettes. He was also an air raid warden in his spare time. Everyone during that time doubled up doing another job, be it air raid warden, home guard, or taking turns fire watching, we all mucked in together.

I was working in the coal industry, which was exempt from military service, naturally after the war I was conscripted for national service along with many others.

I remember there was a great social atmosphere during the war, everyone joined in. As a youth I played cricket with the Church Lads Brigade and I can remember games with the Home Guard, the Auxiliary Firemen and Air Raid Wardens, happy memories amongst such chaos.

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