大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer on behalf of John Warren and has been added to the site with his permission. John Warren fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

It was August 1943 in Southhampton and I was aged four at the time. It was a hot summer's day and we were in the neighbours shelter. Not everyone had a shelter at the start of the war.

Suddenly, the neighbour called over to us...there was a soldier paraschuting down from the sky. But he was injured. He had been shot by one of our soldiers who presumed he was the enemy..he was infact English. Luckily he survived. His plane had been shot down and his colleague had died. He was made a VC, the only VC in fighter command.

At the time Southampton was practically burned down. we hardly ever went into town. The docks were badly hit and the cold storage burned for upto 3 weeks. I remember going along the main road to school. There were miles and miles of English and American vehicles queuing up to fight every day. My sister and I used to always ask the soldiers for a gun. They used to take pity on us and give us coffee which was part of their rashions. I remember my mother making me sugar sandwiches as well as making homemade easter eggs by layering the inside of two spoons with chocolate.

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