大象传媒

I was 8 years old in 1940. I think the month was December and the blitz was in full force. In those days it was considered quite safe for a child to cycle to a scouts meeting. Whilst at that meeting, the alarm was sounded and we were all sent home. However, what was happening in the sky above and all around me was far too exciting just to go home. I stayed on the hill outside the Rectory watching in amazement the battle going on in the sky and seeing the anti aircraft guns blazing away all lit by the searchlights. To a small boy it was all very exciting and I was totally unaware of any danger. Esher was hit quite hard and a number of houses were on fire (including those in our road). When the "All clear" was sounded I went home to the underground shelter in our garden to be met by a very distraught Mother with more than a cross word for me!

It was quite a sport to collect and swap shrapnel, sometimes of a dangerous nature. I remember one night in the shelter when a Welsh Guardsman pleaded to come into the shelter during a raid. My youngest brother was only weeks old. The soldier nearly sat on the Moses basket where he was asleep. I screamed at him and it is still a family joke that I claim to have saved his life.

My last memory of any note was in the early hours of 6 June 1944 when I was at St Edmunds School in Hindhead. We were very well aware that the long anticipated invasion was imminent. Most of us had Fathers either overseas or about to go. That morning the sky was full of aircraft flying low over us and almost wing tip to tip. We had it confirmed at breakfast that the liberation of Europe had started and we were given an extra slice of bread and dripping at breaktime. We followed the progress daily of the battles across Europe and I have always thought it was a splendid way to learn geography.

Just the memories of a child, but nevertheless vivid still today ... just like wearing a gas mask in lessons at the start of the war.

Robin Gray.

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