大象传媒

When war broke out, I was a 27 year old housewife living in Peverell, Plymouth with my husband Bert who was a baker. I was pregnant and our daughter was born in November 1939.

Bert became an ARP Warden and we all got issued with gas masks. Our landlord made a shelter under the dining room and when the Siren went we climbed down a hatch and stayed there until the all clear sounded. My Mother remembered that during World War One there was a potato shortage and she advised me to stock up on Butter Beans. I bought a lot of them! There were plenty of potatoes, so I ended up with vast quantities of Butter Beans and have never fancied them since.

When the Blitz began we were in a state of permanent exhaustion with night after night of bombing. Sometimes there was no gas or electricity and we warmed soup on the fire. I'm sure my daughter ate as much soot as soup. Jacob's biscuit tins were adapted as 'ovens' to use on the fire. As we had no services, washing nappies was a problem. A neighbour of my parents had a copper and so we used it to boil up the clothes, supplying our own coal. A neighbour died and was 'laid out' on her bed when an incendiary bomb landed on her. Fortunately her husband was there, and the fire was extinguished.

After one particular night of bombing someone complained that she had something under her house. There was terrible damage in the area, and although a search was made nothing was found. She persisted and a further search was made. Fins were seen, the Disposal team called, the area evacuated and a large bomb difused. The local paper showed it with 5 men sat astride. When the fires were bad, fire engines from other areas came to help but discovered that their hose connections were different. After the war, all connections were standardised.

During rationing I was fortunate to get lamb chops and with onions and potatoes put a hot pot in the oven. Later I was horrified to find everything ws bright purple. A piece of marker pencil had been in the meat. The butcher had nothing left except three small slices of corned beef for a cottage pie.

After the Blitz we went to Cornwall for about a year. Life was hard with only an outside tap which froze in winter. On washdays I lit a fire in the field and boiled the clothes in a large oval pot. Bert caught the train to Callington at weekends and cycled the 4 miles to us returning on Sunday.

He joined the Home Guard at Staddon Heights. He helped man the guns firing at aeroplanes which used the china clay mounds at Lee Moor to navigate. They were later camouflaged. Although times were hard, there was a great community spirit and we all worked together.

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