大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Age Concern, Dorchester on behalf of Betty Arscott (n茅e Reah) and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Arscott fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Peace was declared on May 8th 1945 and there were great celebrations. The people of Weston Green 鈥� a tiny hamlet near Hampton Court in Surrey - had a party on V.E. Day in the afternoon and in the evening there was a bonfire. The bonfire stood about three times the height of a man. On the top was a model of Hitler holding a Nazi flag. The base of the fire was covered with straw. The sides were heaped with branches and boxes and old car tyres. I think it had chemicals in the middle to make it last. It was lit at eight instead of ten, so I missed the start of it. As you drew near you could see the red glow in the sky, the sweet smell of burning wood and all around there were fireworks and squibs. Crowds of people stood all round the fire laughing and talking while round the fire children and grown-ups danced, singing as they went. They started doing the Lambeth walk singing the song as well. The squibs were a great success; every time they went up the people cheered and as they burnt amongst them they roared with laughter. There were many kinds of fireworks. Some were the ones that jump along the ground at people鈥檚 legs, some were sparklers and some were stuck in the ground and about ten huge stars all different colours shot up into the sky. As the bonfire died down they stirrup-pumped it and made it flare up. As we left the people were much quieter and the bonfire was fainter. Many people were slowly walking away because it was past twelve. Soon the bonfire was no more than a faint glow.

(The above account, called 鈥淭he Victory Bonfire鈥�, was written by Mrs Arscott when she was 11 years old.)

Memories of the War

I was 6 when the war broke out and the most dramatic thing that happened to me was one day, getting off the bus from school, I heard a V1 or V2. I ran to my house but there was a note pinned to the door saying that Mona (the housekeeper who looked after us as my mother was dead) had gone to Mrs White鈥檚 house. I ran to Mrs. White鈥檚 house which was across the road and crawled into the Anderson shelter with Mona and Mrs White. There was a huge bang. When we looked out there were just huge swirls of brown dust - we couldn鈥檛 see a thing. We went across the road to our house and were met with a scene of total devastation; the front door had burst open, all the windows were broken, ceilings were down and the bath was full of debris. The frame of the French doors to the garden was still locked but the doors themselves had been blown out. Everybody helped us clear up and the local council put white canvas in the windows instead of glass. We had canvas in the windows for quite a while and it flapped in the wind.

Just down the road from us was the Mounted Police Headquarters where the bomb exploded whilst they were in the middle of having a sports day. A lot of people were killed and very badly injured because it was said that the ATS taking part were not allowed to throw themselves to the ground, but could only bend down.

At my school, every time air raid sirens went, we had to put up shutters made out of ply wood, with bars across the windows so that we would not be injured by flying glass. Sometimes we had to wear gas masks during lessons to practice. This made reading very difficult as they steamed up! When a new gas was introduced by the enemy, we had to have an extra cylinder taped onto our gas masks which would give us protection against this. Sometimes we went to the British Restaurant from school. This was like a cafeteria and was wonderful! It was extremely cheap to eat there and you had a choice of dishes.

In order to protect the family, my father had reinforced the cupboard under the stairs with massive timbers and corrugated iron. We went into this shelter every time the air raid siren sounded. During the night time raids, my elder sister Joyce and I were put to bed in there. I had to have my head right under the stairs and Joyce had her feet up my nose! We could hear the Ack Ack guns firing at the enemy planes droning overhead. We had 3 cats and they went in as well. Mona was with us and I remember seeing the look of fear on her face and feeling scared because as children you are not usually aware that adults are scared too. My father was too brave to go into the shelter (he had won a Military Cross in the first war), and when 6 incendiary bombs fell, one in a neighbour鈥檚 garden, he went out with a stirrup pump and a bucket and put it out.

We had a lovely big garden that had been dug up for vegetables. Also in the garden was a Summerhouse and I used to have a museum there where I displayed pieces of shrapnel and bits of metal tape dropped by enemy planes to interfere with the British radar.

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