大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War Site by Three Counties Action, on behalf of David John Mansfield, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

My name is David John Mansfield and I was born on the 14 October 1939, at 1 Braemer gardens, Burnt Oak London. This was damaged by bombs and we moved around the corner to number 56 Angus Gardens. These houses were within 300 yards of Hendon Aerodrome.

On the railway line wan an anti-aircraft gun, which we named 鈥淏ig Bertha鈥�, I remember standing on the bath watching 鈥淏ig Bertha鈥� in action.

Our house was 鈥淪trafed鈥� by enemy aircraft shooting up the runway. In the garden we had an Anderson shelter and indoors we had a Morrison.

My parents would not let is be evacuated so we spent the war dodging in and out of various shelters.
We were looked after, when my mum worked by a Miss Jane Sears who lived with the Rodways, in Angus Gardens.
My mother worked at the Rawlplug factory doing war work.

I remember my mum getting some sugar, with this he made some bread and dripping sprinkled with sugar. Our stomachs were too delicate for this and I remember sitting in the Morrison shelter during an air raid been sick; so violently that I banged my head on the metal roof of the shelter.

I can recollect the smell of the shelters.
The Anderson in the garden was always flooded, the street shelters, which had a warden at the entrance had bunks and benches, as children we were spoiled by the adults, I remember the singing during the raids, the singing getting louder as the bombs got closer, I can remember my mums singing, she used to sing in a choir and was proud of her voice.

Sometimes we went to the street shelter at the top of the road or the shelter in Booth Road. My Mum鈥檚 friend also went there. To move me and my brother around, my mum had a twin pram; I remember being wheeled around in this. My mum said that it was easier to do this than grab all of us by the hands.

I remember the time that the RAF cam around with new blanket and sheets as the RAF personnel had stolen ours from the washing line. My father was in the RAF, I don鈥檛 think he came home very often although he was administration and not operational.

I remember going to school, carrying our gas masks, the throwing of sand at one boy, who later became a long life friend. Gas mask practice was carried out at school. We had to continue doing whatever we were doing with these on. The compulsory sleep period in the afternoon because we lost so much sleep during the night. The war must have been nearly at its end because this would have been early 1944.

I remember seeing the doodlebugs coming over, seeing one fall to the ground nearby in Colingdale. I was snatched to safety by my mum from the bathroom window, my favourite viewing point.

I remember seeing all the people in the street laughing an happy. This was because the war was over.

I remember the VE street party. The jelly in paper cups, the orange juice, the food we had not tsted before. Little cakes in cups, the clown and the party hats, the street decorations. (I still have a photograph of this party). I remember the smell of the stall which sold vinegar and spices and the like that stood on the corner of the road, I still think that I can smell this.

NB. Miss Jane Sear died on the 19th August 1948.
Mr. And Mrs. Rodway became Mayor and Mayoress of Hendon, date not known.
I still have my national identity card!

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