大象传媒

Alfred Styles

I was 12 when the war started. At 11 am Britain declared war on Germany. A few hours later the air raid siren sounded. Many people did not know what to do. Some people had Anderson shelters built in their garden but as their garden was not big enough to have a shelter built in it they had to go into a nearby public shelter. When the evacuation program started schools were in turmoil as not only their students were being evacuated but the teachers were too. Although they were in complete chaos they had to stay open due to the children that had stayed. I was not evacuated due to my family feeling that in this time of division between countries we had to stay together. Evacuation split up many of my friends and their families. Many people then brought their children back after 9 months of nothing happening. This was a big mistake as the blitz soon started so the children had to be sent back.

Did you ever have any feeling that war was approaching?

Everyone had a slight feeling that war was coming. Once when we went camping with the boy scouts we took a truck to a place in Suffolk. We then left the truck to find the campsite. When we came back the army were searching through the truck. This was the first sign that war was coming.

Did you ever lose anyone during the Blitz?

No, luckily I was fortunate, my dad often had to cycle home during the bombing raids. Once he stopped just before a bridge to check a tyre. This was the best move he ever made as a bomb then fell onto the bridge blasting it into pieces. We also often had a portable anti-aircraft gun behind our house on the train tracks and the firing was very loud. A policeman was killed in a police box near our house, police boxes were used so that a policeman was always nearby in case of emergency. We also felt ourselves very lucky when a bomb fell on the house next door, but did not explode. I was also very lucky when a bomb exploded in mid air outside our house. I was upstairs at the time and the blast threw me down the stairs. This was the time where I realised this war was more serious than I had at first realised. Soon after that the V2 rockets were introduced. These were unmanned bombs that flew towards cities then had their engines cut out. I was always scared when I heard the bombs cut out near to us. We also called these bombs doodlebugs.

Alfred then told us a bit about a friend he made during the war.

Petr was a Belgian boy who was a cabin boy on a fishing ship. When he was in England the army took his ship and changed it into a minesweeper. My family took him in while his family were manning his ship which was turned into a minesweeper. Petr went to the same school as me during the war but since he was older than me he was called up for the Belgian army before I was called up to the English. Petr failed the medical for the Belgian army but was then called up for the English army when they found out. I joined the army 5 days before the war ended.

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