大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the site by the 大象传媒's Peoples War Team in the East Midlands with Joyce Cowell's permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

The war broke out when I was 14 and I had just started work as a machinist. The bombs were being dropped over Nottingham but no matter how many times we got up with the sirens sounding we still had to go to work. One night a bomb dropped on the house next door to us, meanwhile my Dad went in the air raid shelter to prepare it for us going in. I was in the living room when I heard this bomb drop. I dived under the table with my pet dog, a cocker spaniel called Ruby. My Mum and sister were in the kitchen. After a while we picked up courage to look outside and five houses had been destroyed next to us and two little children had been killed. I can remember car headlights shining on the rubble whilst they were searching for the children. When we came in we were covered in soot and our clothes were hanging in the trees 鈥� it was terrible. People were crying and men were shouting is everybody alright, anyway it was work as usual the next day.

I wanted to go in the land army but my dad said 鈥測ou are to stay at home鈥�, so I had to work day and night shifts on munitions. I worked a capstan lathe, a drilling and milling machine at Bournes factory in Colwick where we made parts for airplanes. I then got transferred to Players shadow factory at Radford where we made parts for binoculars. I hated it but we had to do it, we had no choice.

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