大象传媒

This contribution to People's War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk and submitted to the website with the permission and on behalf of Dorothy Pryke.

I was seventeen when war broke out on September 3rd 1939. Germany had been causing concern for months, invading the small countries on their borders. They had been worried that Britain, France and Belgium would declare war. Finally they invaded Poland and war was declared. During the time of the run up to this Britain had been doing a bit of preparation and we all had to go to collect our gas masks. When we were about to go out to collect them the announcement came over the radio that war had been declared. My mum was in the rear garden and I ran through the house to tell her. I tripped and fell into a glass cabinet cutting my leg badly. It was Sunday so we weren't at work, I was waiting for my boyfriend to arrive so that we could go with my brother Fred and his girl to collect our gas masks.

My boyfriend joined up in November. We were engaged on the 21st of November and he was called up on the 28th. He was a volunteer stationed at Lichfield barracks for training. Then came the time for him to go abroad and he asked me to marry him before he went. I got a telegram at the beginning of March 1940 to get a special licence. I was under age so it was down to my parents and they came with me to sort it all out. It was Easter weekend so we could not do anything straight away. They sorted it out and the following weekend on Saturday 30th March we were married at St Paul's Church, Finnemore Road, Bordesley Green, Birmingham. By the afternoon my new husband had a telegram saying 'Return at once to barracks for embarkation'. By Sunday he was in France and the next thing that happened was DUNKIRK.

At home the bombing started, seven days a week, night after night. We lived in the shelters, we had beds down there and we used to take a flask and just hope and pray that we would come out in the morning. Our house was in the path of Castle Bromwich aerodrome where they built and tested Spitfires. I remember a friend Alex who lived down the road went up testing one day. The fighters came and all he could do was weave and dive as he had no defence. Then our fighters got up there to help him, while all we could do was watch. We were also in line with the factory that made gliders and the BSA Birmingham Small Arms, it was like a triangle.

One night we weren't so lucky as a bomb dropped in the garden next door and knocked the shelter sideways. For the rest of the war our house was covered in tarpaulin at the back. Only four doors down there were people buried under the rubble and their house was no more. Over the road opposite our house another bomb dropped and an old school friend and her mother and boyfriend died.

My sister and I worked at the Ryvita factory on shifts. We were on the two till ten shift when it was bombed and we were quickly taken to shelters at the back. As we ran to them we were machine gunned and had to throw our white overalls away from us or lay on them. We got to the shelter in time.

A landmine landed on the shelter belonging to Hughes Biscuits and killed everyone in it. At the same time a direct hit on the BSA brought down one whole section killing all inside. My father worked there and was helping to clear up and rescue any others injured. There is a slab there with all the names of people who died on it. Although few and far between, it was nice occasionally to get a nights sleep.

The bombing of Coventry was terrible. They didn't seem to care where they dropped the bombs as long as they hit something. The Cathedral went and thousands were killed, but I am only going to give an account of where I was at the time.

We could not go back to the Ryvita factory as after the second time we were hit there was only the flour mill left. Some of the girls went to work in York at Terrys, I believe that it belonged to Ryvita. But me, I ended up in hospital with peritonitis and could not get back to work for six months. I then went to work at BSA, in the booking office, booking in the goods. We used to love the days when we received goods from America. The boxes used to have tins of spam, butter and all sorts of things we couldn't get packed in with them! It was all put into a big box and shared out at Christmas or on birthdays so everyone got a fair share.

I tried to join the forces but they would not accept me because I have a deformed hand. It was thought that I would not be of much use. I joined the NFS (National Fire Service) which later became the AFS (Auxilliary Fire Service). I still worked at BSA and at the end of the day I went to the fire station to cook a meal for the firemen. Sometimes they were called out before they could eat it and be gone all night. We would be back at work before they got in and by the time they were washed up the day raids would start. After Dunkirk the raids got worse. I stayed with the AFS until I was 'stood down' in 1945. I still did my job at the BSA.

My husband was at Dunkirk. He was in the water for three days waiting to get on a boat. All he came back with was a photo of our wedding tucked in the band of his pants. His body was so sore when he came home on leave that I had to go and buy him some silk underwear for which I gave all my coupons. He couldn't stand anything rough on his skin.

When he went back, it was to Ireland, he was a DR (Dispatch Rider). He was there a while and was out one day, got tripped by a wire and ended up in hospital. It was a good thing he wasn't carrying any dispatches that time. He was transferred to Canterbury hospital where I visited him. When he came out of hospital he was stationed in Pluckly, near Canterbury, staying in a house called Surrenden Derring. Bill was there until he joined the D Day forces and I did not see him again until November 1945. Then he went back again until he was demobbed in 1946.

It is the VE Anniversary this weekend which takes me back and I remember things which are at the back of my mind. I can't put down all the horrors of those years. It seems like yesterday. I remember the drumming over, there was a special sound to them. It was the weight of the bombs that caused them to have this sound. We used to dread it. Then came the BUZZ BOMBS, they were like a plane without a pilot. The Germans would set them on a course and hope they would drop and hit the target

I watched one come over Dereham once. I had taken my sister to my mother-in-laws for a few days and I watched it out of the bedroom window. They had a flame coming out of the back, but it was when the flame cut out that you had to watch out as that was when it dived. There was no escape for those under it. London was the main target but a lot cut out before they got there and hit the coastal towns. Our fighters used to go up and try to get them over the sea. They had a lot of success and in doing so minimized the damage.

To get back to VE Day, the sun shone and it was a lovely day. Everyone was hugging and kissing and it didn't matter if you were a stranger, people came up to you in the street and gave you a hug. The happiness and relief was felt everywhere and I was having my first child so all was just perfect because I was told I would never have children. When I told my husband he could not believe it but my son Anthony arrived and was well worth waiting for. There were tables down the streets and everyone mucked in and gave up their rations for the party. There was dancing until the early hours. It was great because for the first time in a long while we were sure of no raids and could go to bed in our homes. This was a novelty as some of the children thought the shelter was their bedroom as they knew nothing else.

There was still trouble with the Japs and a lot of our lads were still over there. The final outcome was a nuclear bomb being dropped in two places, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was devastating to the people but it brought about the fall of the Japs who had no thought of giving in. They were so cruel to our boys who were prisoners. Many died in their camps and more even after they came home through the starvation and cruelty.

My eldest brother Jim was killed at Dunkirk and is laid to rest there in the town cemetery. I did go over with my husband once to visit and intended to return but when my Bill died I knew I couldn't do it without him.

Well make of this what you will, you may find it interesting in a history sort of a way. These are my memories, food was rationed, no need to diet! We all had jobs, often two one paid, the other voluntary. There were no holidays by the seaside as you were not allowed to go. People who lived there were evacuated until it was safe to go back. Mines were still getting washed up on shore and fished up in the nets as they were put around the coast to stop the Germans invading.

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