大象传媒

This story was told to my daughter by her grandmother, Dorothy (nee Fluck). Two years ago my daughter's year two project was 'Children in the Second World War'. While we were away together for a special family weekend, my daughter interviewed her grandmother while I took these notes. Later Dorothy added her own account. Shortly after Dorothy became gravely ill and died so we were unable to ask for any more of these special memories. I found these notes we thought thrown away last night. I write this for the website in memory of a very special person. Sadly she's gone too soon.

Dorothy said,"I remember August 1939. My father had a telegram to say he had to go to help fight the war. He had to go the same day back to the Airforce he had left years before. He had been working on his allotment garden. He had time to wash and pack his bag then he had to catch the last bus to Gloucester."

Dorothy was 10 years old when the war broke out. She said,"I remember listening to the radio on Sunday 3rd September 1939. It was in the morning the Prime Minister told us,'This Country is at War '.

Dorothy said," We didn't know what to do, Dad was gone so Mum, my two sisters and I walked 3 miles to Grandma's house for dinner. It was such a frightening day.

Dorothy later wrote the following for my daughter's project...

During the war all the factories had to make things for the war, like guns and tanks and army lorries and aeroplanes and ships. So there were many shortages of goods my family needed like candles, replacement parts for parrafin lamps, touch batteries, cups and plates, furniture, sheets and towels,even clothes. The coal from the mines had to be used in factories so every house could only have a ration of 20 bags to last a whole year.

My sisters and I used to go into the forest to collect wood to burn on the fire. We carried it home in an old pram. It was called wooding.

Tanks were made in Gloucester near where I lived and they were tested on the hill near our house. My sisters and I were very frightened of the noise they made. One Sunday morning I was sitting in the garden when I saw a tank on the hill. Something was wrong. I saw it start to roll and then it rolled over and over down the hill. We found out later that an important man had come to the factory in Gloucester and had asked to drive a tank. He lost contol, and it had crashed, but nobody was killed.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.