大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jenny Christian of the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library in conjunction with 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk on behalf of Peter Whittaker and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was aged nine at the beginning of the War and I remember helping my Father build a concrete air raid shelter in the back garden, it was like a six foot cube and bunk beds were added later. There was a tunnel up from the cellar and an access corridor to an escape hatch in the garden. The walls and roof were 12 inches thick. My Father had been in the Royal Engineers in World War 1.
When our street was hit by a bomb all the windows in our house, including the frames were blown in. As a child I remember two whole windows fell astride the backs of two dining chairs which smashed the glass. When a landmine went off virtually destroying two streets of houses nearby I remember a friend of mine picked up a piece of shrapnel. Sometime afterwards, he put it into an electric fire to see what would happen. The houses nearby had only just had their electricity restored when he successfully managed quite accidentally to plunge them all into darkness again; miraculously he was quite unhurt.
My Father was a Sergeant in the Home Guard and whilst drilling his troops near Basingstoke, who were mostly farm workers, one of them let off a firecracker. Whether it was an accident or on purpose I don't know; my Father never batted an eyelid, but as a young boy I was most impressed!
I became a Conscientious Objector and served my National Service as a hospital porter at Teddington General Hospital and Westminster Children's Hospital, I seem to remember my wages were about 拢7 weekly. I thought my Father wouldn't understand my conviction especially as he'd fought in the First World War, but he supported my decision.

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