大象传媒

Early in 1940 I was evacuated to South Wales where I spent three years. It was the first time I had been away from home. I was only nine years old. When finally arriving I remember sitting in a large hall waiting to be taken to foster parents. I sat there watching the other children being taken away. I felt unwanted and alone as I was the last child there.

Finally I was taken by a lady, a Mrs. Williams, who it turned out had two sons of her own. We got on very well, I soon settled in and made many friends.

Having always loved singing, I learned to sing in Welsh, and went on to come second in the school singing competition; not bad for a kid from Brum. I ran all the way back to the house waving my prize, a 3/6 postal order only for Mrs. Williams to say "that will pay for the crockery you broke".

Mrs. Williams was a good lady and a great cook. I never went short of food, but I was always ripping my shoes apart, and at one time, she made me wear a pair of her old court heel shoes as punishment.

I vividly remember playing with my mates on a mountain when suddenly two planes appeared above us. We watched them chasing one another and could hear their gunfire. As we found shelter we could see one of the planes was a Spitfire, then suddenly the other plane was trailing smoke. We saw the German pilot bail out.

Some weeks later I was taken to a showground where to my surprise the remains of the German plane was on display. I was allowed to to sit in the cockpit and remember seeing on one of the dials the word 'Lucas'.

I have always been grateful to the Welsh people who took me in and remember to this day, at the age of 72, the song I sang in that school competition.

After three years of not seeing any of my family, my elder sister came to Wales to see me. I was immediately home-sick and wanted to go home. I was now l2 years old, it was late 1943.

On reaching home I met my mother walking down the street. I ran into her arms and we both burst into tears. When seeing all the bombed-out houses, I realised how lucky I was to still have my Mon and Dad and the rest of the family.

On a brighter note, I remember my Dad having two ducks he kept in a home-made pen. The eggs came in handy, but when he put the Anderson Airaid Shelter up he forgot to put the bottom panel in front of the door. We had three days and nights of torrential rain which flooded the shelter, so the ducks had it for the rest of the war!

We all had to go to Aston Park underground shelter for the rest of the war. I can still see and hear the bombs dropping in the moonlight. If Mom was bad, we used to sleep under the stairs. One night a bomb exploded quite close. The whole house shook and all but four window panes were blown out. Mom always said " if we go, we will all go together".

Another sight that I will never forget was on a Friday, 12 noon, an unexploded land mine that had been dropped during the night suddenly exploded. It destroyed four shops and five houses, but I can still see a piano climbing and twisting up into the air. They could have put five double-decker buses on top of one another in the crater that was left.

These are some of my memories of the War, and there are many more.

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