大象传媒

'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Edward Fawcett for Three Counties Action on behalf of Marjorie Smith and has been added to the site with her permission.The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions

'I was about 12 years old at the beginning of the war,my Dad ( a dairyman by trade )was the local ARP man with a couple of others.The ARP hut was by the Talbot public house.I went to stay for about a week with my aunty Agnes in Watford and for a treat we went to the Colosseum theatre in London to see the show " The White Horse Inn ".

When we came out the blackout was so dense we couldn't see hardly anything and we ended up following a lady with a white hat and luckily she was going to the Underground we were heading for.My mother's parents used to come to us at the Dower House to sleep every night.It was my Mum,my sister and I in one big double bed and my Grandparents in the other room.

One night we could hear German planes overhead when we heard this whistling sound.Then we heard a very loud bang and a land mine had landed over in Shenley Brook End village,on the outskirts in Mr Sidney Willet's small holding.It made a huge crater and killed a few sheep but no one was hurt,but New Row Cottages were near by and my Dad's cousin,cousin Sally who lived in one of them cottages was so shocked she was brought down to stop with us by an ARP man because they knew we were related to her.

She turned up with her face all blackened and my mother was trying to cope with my elderly grandma trying to get her dressed and with cousin Sally in shock.She stood there in her nighty and dressing gown,she didn't even have time to dress.We all sat in the kitchen,mother trying to make tea for everyone.

My sister Joan and I had a small bedroom which looked out onto Oakhill Lane and we were woken up in the middle of the night by a dreadful rumbling sound coming from the roadway.It was too dark to see what it was .It turned out to be the French Canadians on manouvres in their big tanks.

I remember they stayed for about a week or maybe abit longer and one or two who we got to know used to come round to the old house and my mother used to cook their bacon and eggs which they had brought round.My sister who was seventeen at the time got particularly friendly with one of them called Edgar and he gave her a ring with the letter 'E' on it.

After they left they used to write to each other very regularly for quite some time until suddenly the letters stopped.We never did find out what happened to him.For VE Day,or the day after there was a big celebration and we had a lovely tea set out in the school field which is now Dudley Hill.We were vastly relieved it was all over.

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