大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Bernie Hawkins and has been added to the website on behalf of Mary Brown with her permission and she fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When war was declared in 1939, I lived with my mother and father in a house at Westcliffe-on Sea, Essex and attended Southend High School.

Towards the end of 1939 / beginning of 1940, Southend and Westcliffe were both declared restricted areas. This was because the Royal Navy took over the seafront and many houses and hotels. This new Naval establishment was called 鈥� HMS Westcliff! People were advised to move away and all children were to be evacuated.

My school was evacuated to Derbyshire but my mother didn鈥檛 want me to go. As my father worked in London, it was decided that we would move to Gidea Park near Hornchurch as this would halve his journey time to work 鈥� we also had relatives there.

I attended Clarke鈥檚 College in Romford it was on one of my journeys to college that I have a vivid memory that stays with me till today. There were quite a few of us going to college and others who were making for Gidea Park station when, all of as sudden, there was a terrific noise and a German fighter plane came over the roof tops and swooped down on us. People were shouting 鈥淭ake cover鈥� and we all laid down in front gardens or behind garden walls. Then the plane did another run and a burst of machine-gun fire had some screaming. It disappeared as fast as it had appeared. Thankfully none of us was hurt, just our clothes were dusty where we had thrown ourselves in the dirt. I shall always remember the sign on the side of that plane 鈥� Messerschmidt and the sinister- looking swastika. When we eventually arrived in Romford, it was to see the very large gasometer in flames 鈥� the work of 鈥榦ur鈥� Messerschmidt.

By now, we decided that perhaps it wasn鈥檛 a good move we had made to Gidea Park as the bombers came over every day and the fighters could be seen overhead. My father had reinforced our dining room with shutters at the windows. The family-size dining table was fully extended and my bed was made underneath.

One Saturday night we were in the dining room listening to the radio (I can still remember that it was Tommy Handley in ITMA). I was already under the table when the floor started to rumble and there was a loud explosion. All the windows in the house were blown in and part of the ceiling came down on the table. We were all very frightened, but we were safe.

ARP wardens were soon on their rounds to check if everyone was safe and they took us to the local school. We soon discovered that a landmine had been dropped in the garden of the houses opposite us. The houses were destroyed and sadly the people in them were killed.

The next morning, we were told that our own house would have to be demolished as it wasn鈥檛 habitable, but we were allowed to go back to the house and collect some clothes and personal belongings. We arranged to go and stay with relatives in High Wycombe, which was a comparatively safe area.

I strongly remember the worst night of the blitz when over 2,000 incendiary bombs were dropped over London, turning the whole city into an inferno. We went out into the garden and could see this eerie glow from all those miles away. It was quite shocking to think of London in flames like this.

We stayed there until 1944 when we returned to our house in Westcliffe, which was completely undamaged and more or less as we had left it all those years ago.

Because I was over 12 years of age, my mother, along with other women not already working outside the home, could be 鈥榙irected鈥� into munitions work or be a clippie on the buses. The idea was that women would take the place of men in these jobs. However, before she was married she had worked in a bank and was very good at figures. She was placed in a bank (taking the place of someone away fighting).

By 1944, I was working in the city of London; this was the time of the flying bombs. We were told that if we heard a flying bomb engine cut out, there wouldn鈥檛 be time to get to the shelter so we were to sit under our desks. We all felt rather shy about doing this until one elderly gentleman made a great show of putting his newspaper on the floor and sitting on it. We soon all followed his example 鈥� just as well as, although the building wasn鈥檛 hit, the office windows were shattered by nearby explosions several times.

In spite of all the hardships and fear, we did have some fun. We could just get up to the department store Gamages in our lunch hour, where we could buy pieces of parachute silk which we could make into underwear. When the word got out that Boots had lipsticks, we girls soon formed a queue!

Every day at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, Dame Myra Hess, a much-loved pianist, gave a concert. These were free and gave us a much-needed break and a chance to relax away from the stresses our daily life during the war. Strangely enough, although there were daily raids over London, the Gallery was never hit.

I also remember the 鈥楤ritish Restaurants鈥�, which were set up by the Ministry of Food. They were a real boon and you could buy a three-course meal which cost just 6d (old money 鈥� just 2 陆 p today!). It was usually fish pie or mince meat pie and although no-one was sure what type of fish or meat it was, they certainly were filling and help out the rations.

On Saturday evenings, there was usually a dance in the church hall 鈥� this is where I met my future husband. Other highlights were dancing around the bandstand on the cliffs at Westcliff on VE night; cheering Mr Churchill when he came out on the Mansion House balcony with Field Marshall Montgomery (Monty as he was known to all).

The war in Europe finished in May 1945 鈥� just one month before my nineteenth birthday. I had been longing to join up in the Wrens (they had such a lovely uniform!) but it was not to be!

Soon there were other delights 鈥� bananas in the shops and being able to buy scented soap!

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