大象传媒

Hello there, memories of the war are still with me, even though when war started I was only eleven years old. Going right back to the start of the war I remember Chamberlain's speech telling us that we were at war with Germany, and becuase I think my Mother and Father knew that war was inevitable, the preparations of the blackout curtains. In a short while the evacuees came to this area, Tamworth, Staffs. and because my school was not big enough, we had to share the school day with them, so we had the afternoons off. Later we moved to a shop and off-licence in a small village called Baddesley Ensor, which was really lovely as our house was opposite the church, and every week we could watch the weddings coming to the church. I remember watching the Land Girls on top of the huge machine that baled the hay. They worked far into the night, because we then had double summer time and it was light for so long.
Meat was very scarce and the ration tiny, so the farmer and my father hid one of the piglets on the farm and raised it secretly with scraps . When the day came for the pig to be killed and the meat from it came it was just wonderful. I have never had pork like it, and the faggots were delicious, it was a really special time for us in those long years, when everything got shorter and scarce and almost unobtainable. We longed for bananas, and Frys Crunchies.amongst many other things,
I rmember joining a queue one day (there were always queues), I didn't know what I was waiting for, but when I neared the top of the queue, it was for peanut butter. I had never heard of it but I bought some just the same. Clothes were on coupons and my father had put on weight, so to make do, my mother put a big V insert in the back, the trousers were pale grey, and the insert was black. Nobody cared though, it was for the war effort. We couldn,t get needles either, the metal had gone to the war effort, and so much more. We wore our identification number, all the time in case we got killed or injured. My No. was OSDB 100/5. I have it still. We also carried our gas masks everywhere, in small cardboard boxes, but soon we were able to buy special leatherette cases to make them look a bit better.
One night our village was bombed, we think by mistake, as the 'planes had been going for Coventry almost daily. The sirens went on anf off so much that we forgot whether there was an alert on or not. On this particular night we were bombed for real. My father was an A.R.P. warden and was outisde at about midnight (summer) and he ran into the house calling for us to get up quickly. We could hear the 'planes and the noise of the bombs falling, so terrified we ran downstairs and hid under the table, the plaster from the ceiling falling about us. My father ran back again and said get out, get out and we ran outside onto 'the common'. I said let's hide under this bush because the common was as light as day from the incendiaries and we thought the airmen could see us, but insted Dad took us just a little further to a dried-up river bed which acted like huge trench. There we discovered that many people from the village had thought of the same thing. We lay there all night until the raid was over. We heard that two landmines had fallen that night and killed several people in the centre of the village, and also some bombs had fallen on the bakers premises. Which has reminded me of the severe winter that we had in 1941 I think. The baker had to bring the bread around by a horse pulling an upturned
table all through the deep snow. No-one had any petrol..
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These are just some of my memories, but the person who has more memories than anyone I know is my husband. HE IS DUTCH AND LIVED IN HOLLAND ALL THROUGH THE WAR AND THE GERMAN OCCUPATION. He had many vivid experiences and they are things that we should not forget because this war was a war for him too though he was not in England.
What happened in Holland is something that should be told, especially to our young people. These memories are too long and too many for me to write to you, but why don't you ask him. His brother who still lives in Holland is coming to stay with us for a few days 4th-8th December. They both recall the events of the war occupation vividly and they had some remarkable experiences, if you ask them you could learn a great deal.

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