- Contributed by听
- Pat Oakley
- People in story:听
- Margaret Church, Ivy, Landlady
- Location of story:听
- Leamington Spa
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A4330423
- Contributed on:听
- 02 July 2005
NO HIDING PLACE
I鈥檇 been evacuated with all the employees of the aircraft factory where I worked, from London to Leamington Spa, where we were thought to be safe. We had only been there five weeks when it all changed. It had been a very distressing night watching the destruction of Coventry 16 miles away and the following morning when we went to work we heard the devastating news that eight of our bosses had been killed during the night. They were staying in a hotel while looking for more permanent accommodation, and their hotel had taken a direct hit from a bomber returning from the Coventry raid.
Soon after these events we moved our digs because a new baby had arrived and there was no longer space for us and for the first time we knew what it felt like to be really hungry. Most things were rationed and our new landlady was not a very good manager. I fact she could be quite unpleasant. When we came home after a hard days work, our evening meal would be a small plate of sandwiches. For some reason there was always an odd number of sandwiches so Ivy and I had to take turns to have the extra one! One day we mentioned this to a fellow employee who lived across the road. and so she would often provide us with jacket potatoes. We would consume these with great relish in our shared bedroom, and if the landlady came in, as she frequently did, we had to hide them in the bed. She was a very strict suspicious lady. She also became neurotic when soap was rationed and our washing became a bone of contention.
Eventually we moved again to new digs to be with a family with two teenage daughters. This was a much happier household. We were fed well and we all mucked in together to do the chores. The first time the siren went they invited us to join them in the cupboard under the stairs. We decided to go back to bed, but as morning dawned we could hear the drone of approaching bombers. We looked out of the window and to our amazement we saw a German bomber flying so low that we could clearly see the German Cross marked on the plane. It went on to drop five bombs on our factory and five people were killed. There was a huge explosion and the factory was badly damaged. Once again we were sent home.
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