大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Sandra Beckett on behalf of Phyllis Rowe, the author, and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.
MY FAMILY IN WARTIME
My father Harry was a Special Constable. My mother as well as coping with her own family and three evacuees used to help at the American Canteen. She used to enjoy being delivered home in a jeep with 2 M.P.s. We were transferred as helpers from the Y.M.C.A. to the G.I. canteen when the Americans came 鈥� they served coffee and ring doughnuts. The canteen, which was run by Beatrice Yarrow, was somewhere near to the back of Woolworths, and near it was a factory where they made Spitfire parts. It was segregated between whites and blacks (on 2 different floors).
We lived next to Alma Farm and they took milk to Truro on a milk-float. My mother used to hitch a lift on this to do her shopping. Buses were rare, and trains ran at all times!
MY BROTHER KINGSLEY:
My eldest brother, Kingsley, was just trained in the Regular Air Force when war was declared. He went straight to France, aged 19, in the Advanced Air Striking Force. He flew in Fairy Battle Fighter bombers as an air gunner. There were only 2 crew, pilot and navigator-bomber.
When I told you that I was helping at the station with soldiers after Dunkirk, someone said to me that they had seen my brother, Kingsley, arrive at Truro Station. This was a great relief, and he spent a night at home before being recalled to a new aerodrome in Britain. He later flew with Wellingtons (I think 150 squadron) and I have a letter in which he says he felt isolated and enclosed in a Wellington after the feeling of freedom in Fairy Battles.
He was killed in a raid on Hamburg on 10th May, 1941. He was 21 and is buried in Soltan Cemetery, Germany, which I have visited.

Next in the family is me 鈥� I was 17 when war was declared. I was at school and planning to go to Teacher Training College (which I did later.) However, I wanted to do something in the war and worked in the A.R.P. Headquarters in the basement of the County Hall. This story is told in 鈥淲hen Bombs Fell鈥�. I was there from September 1939 to the end of the war.
The third sibling was VIVIAN. He was at Cambridge. They asked for volunteers from Universities to form R.E.M.E. which he joined. He did later get his Degree but stayed in the Army and later became a Colonel. He served in France and Germany and later went to Singapore.
KEN also joined R.E.M.E. and became a Captain. He had been training to be a surveyor but never went back to finish his training.
ROSELLE, the youngest, was 7 when war was declared.

My father was driving me from Highertown to the railway station, when as we turned to go down the hill (probably 录 way down) a German fighter-bomber came up the bank from the station, passed over our heads and went down onto the Falmouth Railway line. He was flying so low that we could clearly see the German markings and his face, as he was in an open cockpit. He continued down the Falmouth railway line, dropping bombs just past Penwethers.
My brother at Highertown saw the bomb-holds open and the bombs released. They went to the area and brought back the fin and other parts of the bombs as souvenirs.

Jack Rowe (who was not my husband then) was in the Merchant Navy. He arrived in Plymouth during the blitz on leave and found there was no transport to St.Austell. However, the St.Austell Fire Brigade was there on duty and he hitched a lift and got home on the Fire Engine.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.