大象传媒

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In 1940 my parents took me for a birthday treat to Whipsnade zoo! While we were there we heard the sound of an aircraft. My Dad quickly got my mother and myself under a bench - a few seconds later there was a terrific bang! I can always remember my dad getting up and walking off to see what had happened. Afterwards we found out that a German plane, having been chased by one of ours, had dropped a bomb to lighten its load before flying off. Mother panicked because she thought the lions might get out and run wild!

We lived on the Luton Road in Dunstable. In our garden we had an underground air-raid shelter complete with 2 sets of bunk beds, electric light and an oil stove. It was very damp and we didn鈥檛 use it very much, although from time to time it became a childrens playhouse. Like lots of people we got used to the air-raids and would just get underneath the dining table when we heard the siren.

We didn鈥檛 travel very much but my dad did receive a small petrol allowance. He worked for a firm that made flying helmets for pilots and every now and then he had to visit a firm in Amersham (I'm not quite sure why). My mum and I went with him; that was an outing for us! My father was too old to go to war but he was an air-raid warden and carried out fire-watching duties. He patrolled an area from Pointers Road to Church Street in Dunstable. I can remember watching the wardens being trained. One day smoke came pouring out of a hut; the ARP wardens had to crawl through it so that they would know how to deal with smoke. I wasn鈥檛 very keen on my dad going in there but it didn鈥檛 seem to do him any harm!

I had a Mickey Mouse gas mask that I had to carry about all the time. Towards the end of the war, many people got tired of carrying them around and left them at home. I also remember watching lots of American lorries driving through the town from Luton. They had coloured soldiers, who we had never seen before, and we children used to cheer them along and were given chewing gum. A real treat!

Later in the war we heard the V2 rockets, the buzz bombs. We could hear the sound of their engines, everyone would be very tense, holding their breath, happy that we could still hear the engine but knowing that the minute the engine cut out, some poor soul might possibly get hurt.

At the end of the war on VJ day, everyone congregated in the town. We stood outside Barclays Bank, opposite the old town hall when someone let off a firework, I鈥檓 not quite sure what sort it was but it landed on my ankle.

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