´óÏó´«Ã½

My name is Peter Green and in 1939, I was 5 years old, living in Woodham Ferrers in Essex.

It was summertime 1939, and I was on the beach with my Mum & Aunt — they were chatting about something they had heard on the radio about going to war and were wondering what was happening across the water.

My first memory of any action was one evening when we were standing outside our cottage. A small squadron of bombers went by and then returned 20 minutes later. We realised they were German bombers, probably heading for North Weald aerodrome which was bombed. We heard machine gun fire and then saw 2 parachutes drifting away.

We lived a mile and a half from the main road on a hill overlooking the valley of the River Crouch, so we had a very good view! Troops often used the hills. Not far away there was an emergency landing strip where an American Marauder Bomber landed. I ran up to the bomber and got given chewing gum etc.

Nearby was Chelmsford, the home of the Marconi factories. About half a dozen barrage balloons protected the factory, which was developing radar.

Lots of bombs were dropped nearby and we could see all the damage caused by incendiary bombs on our way to school. One hit the local vicarage and set light to the roof — all the possessions were laid out on the lawn as we went past the next morning.

I heard the first doodlebug when I was at school, I must have been about 9 or 10. I heard the plane and rushed for the shelter. The engine cut out and we heard a bang, we all thought it was a wrecked plane. However, it had gone into a nearby house and blown the windows out.

I remember being told about a doodlebug coming down during milking — the bomb went off and the blast blew a cow into the man milking him and killed him.

The fighter planes used to stop the doodlebugs by putting a wing underneath and flipping them over, instead of shooting them down.

My Auntie Kathleen Goodman ran a first aid post from her garage. I used to go out with her to collect plants for herbal remedies and our own medicines. I also collected aluminium saucepans, cans etc for the war effort, which were melted down for making Spitfires.

I used to moan about the rations to my mother because my Dad and brother always ate the butter within a few days. We had no bananas and perhaps one bar of chocolate a week. We used to get occasional rabbits from the local gamekeeper and we made a hutch to keep chickens in. We grew our own vegetables.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.