大象传媒

One amazing fact about war time Britain was that, often amidst anxiety and danger, humour could appear as if from nowhere.

It was in the early stages of the war that I found myself with the Fleet Air Arm in Portsmouth. How few people today really appreciate the tremendous bomb damage this City suffered during the war? So much destruction, yet the people coped with courage and no small amount of humour, a smile often just around the corner.

On one occasion I was in an air raid shelter beneath the Naval barracks parade ground when a German land mine dropped close by. After clambering out, the authorities decided that the new recruits should march to South Sea, out of the way. We weren't actually marching - more like ambling through the bomb damaged streets with not a soul in sight. Suddenly we heard a noise that seemd to be coming from a confused mass of wooden beams, bricks and rubble. It sounded like laughter. Two or three of us climbed over the rubble and looked down into a huge hole. There we saw an old man sitting on something laughing loudly. We called down from above,
"Are you alright?" At first we didn't get a response so we shouted louder. Eventually the old man heard us and looked up.
"Hello lads, you'll have to shout, I'm hard of hearing". We repeated the question.
"I'm alright" he said still laughing
"I always said these houses were Jerry built and today I've been proved right". We looked puzzled but he continued,
"I only pulled the toilet chain, there was a bang and the whole house fell down!"

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