大象传媒

I was born in 1934. I was five years old when war began. I attended Southover School, Lewes. Between 1939-1945, there were two particular songs I will always remember singing 鈥� 鈥淭en Green Bottles鈥�! and 鈥淥ne Man went to Mow鈥�! Our teacher would get us to sing these rhymes whilst in the air raid shelters. If we lost count of the bottles, or where we were in the song 鈥� she would make us start all over again!!

One particular day stands out particularly in my mind. The date was 20th January, 1943. I came home from school, and on arriving home, my Mother suggested I went upstairs to see my Grandmother who was staying with us at the time. She was staying at the very top of the house 鈥� she was bedridden most of the time. I went upstairs and looked out of the window, when there was an almighty roar of a German bomber coming across overhead. The German pilot was looking around, looking over his shoulder. Then as he turned my eyes met his and it seemed that they were burning right through me. I shall never forget that moment. My Mother said that that I was probably the last person to have seen the pilot alive. It made me think鈥� he may have had a son back in Germany, just like me. I shall never forget his piercing blue eyes.

I later found out that German bombers had dropped bombs in North Street, Lewes. A public house was also bombed the same day, called the Stagg Inn. Two men were killed in this blast.

My father was too old to be called up by the Army 鈥� he had served in the First World War, so he worked as a gardener at the Evacuees Hospital. He had to start work at 6am, and on this particular morning, I went to see him to take him his lunch that my Mother had prepared for him. My father was in the kitchen garden, which was part of a large paddock. I had just arrived, when my father said that there was a Doodlebug on its way. We both saw it going towards Kingston Village. It hit Kingston Ridge at the top of the South Downs. When it finally exploded, we were a good mile and half away, but the blast actually knocked us off our feet! When we eventually got back on our feet, my father asked if I was alright 鈥� my father explained to me that it was the Doodlebug, and that if it had exploded nearer to us in Kingston Village we probably wouldn鈥檛 have survived to tell the tale. The day was 21st July 1944 at 8.15 am.

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