大象传媒

I was raised in Selsdon, near Croydon in Surrey. Apparently while I was in my pram I was taken to a hillside and shown the Crystal Palace burning down.

We had a small garden, so when the war began my dad decided to share an allotment with his brother. They tried to grow as much produce as they could during the war. The iron railings were taken from our garden to be seconded for making tanks. We had an air raid shelter outside and a Morrison shelter indoors. Sometimes we also went in the broom cupboard. We spent hours down there waiting for something to happen

I had a ride in the wheelbarrow the half mile or so it was to the allotment. We were going down the road one day and I was looking up at the beautiful blue sky. I saw a dogfight, the vapour trails of spitfires and hurricanes clearly visible. I loved it as the planes and their pilots looked as if they were having fun.

The barrage balloons were used to prevent planes from flying low. Women's forces generally looked after the barrage. I remember they weren't very effective. I loved collecting shrapnel. One of the games we had at school was to see who could collect the most on the way home and swop it the next day. Long streams of silver paper were dropped by enemy planes to deceive the radar. We used to roll it up and make another collection.

My dad was an air raid warden and would have to go and maintain watch from Selsdon hill, reporting on various developments during the air raids. If fires started he would have to run round putting them out.

(PK)

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