大象传媒

When the war started in 1939 I was a ten year old girl living in Louth, Lincolnshire and I can remember the war years very well.

The day war was declared I wondered what all the fuss was about - 'we are only having a war' I said. I soon began to realise what war really meant. We had already been issued with gas masks which we had to take everywhere with us.

For a few months nothing seemed to happen, then things changed. Dad joined the Army, he was in the Royal Engineers stationed down south. Rationing started, evacuees were living all over town and troops were everywhere - they were training.

We would be sat in the house having lunch and suddenly the door would fly open and loads of soldiers would run through the house and out of the back door. Planes would also be constantly flying over our heads.

Dad went to France with the Royal Engineers and eventually ended up at Dunkirk. He was one of the lucky ones - he came back home.

When we expected to be invaded, soldiers used Louth church spire as a look out because on a clear day you could see to the coast. I only visited the coast once (Mablethorpe) during the war and we walked up to the sea front. Everywhere you looked on the beach there was barbed wire - nothing could possibly get onto the sands. It was a sight I have never forgotten.

Gradually the shop shelves became empty and rationing began to affect us badly. Food, clothes, sweets, everything disappeared. We only made lentil soup for cookery lessons at school for months and months. We had nothing else to cook or bake with.

It was a world of blackouts and rationing but we made the best of it and we always managed to keep smiling no matter what.

Then the air raids started, sometimes the sirens would sound about 8pm at night and the 'all clear' wouldn't sound until 5am the next morning. When that happened we did not go to school the next day until lunch time. Then we would just get settled in school and there would be another alert. We had to go into the school's air raid shelter until the 'all clear' sounded again. We did not get muct of an education in those days! Most of the young teachers had been called up into the forces. The one's teaching us had come out of retirement to do the job.

The sirens sounding the alert did not always sound before the ememy planes were over head. I can recall several times when this happened. One evening I was going on an errand for my mum, it was a lovely summer's evening and I was walking to the shop. Suddenly a big plane swooped out of the sky machine gunning me. Mum had told my sister's and I that if this ever happened we had to run to the nearest air raid shelter, so that's what I did and I was there until 5.30am when the 'all clear' sounded. This happened on numerous occasions.

I can remember the 1000 bomber raids taking off from the aerodromes around Louth and coming back at about 5.30am. We always knew if some of them had been hit as the engines made a funny noise.

The airbourne division was stationed in Louth before the Arrum invasion. One day the town was full of airbourne troops and the next day they had gone. Months later they came back - or what was left of them!

And so it went on until 6th May 1945 - 'Victory' Day. It was a day never to be forgotten. The lights went on and the town was lit up for the first time in 6 years. Music was playing in the streets and people danced and sang along. The flood lights were brought in to light up the church spire which is 290ft high - it truly was a day to remember.

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