- Contributed by听
- Civic Centre, Bedford
- People in story:听
- Gordon Afflick
- Location of story:听
- Surrey and North Wales
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A2718632
- Contributed on:听
- 07 June 2004
A young boy during the war
I was born in 1937, and I lived at Malden in Surrey. I remember standing at the front door one day with my father when there was an air-raid warning. As we stood there, we saw this Doodle-bug came down across the sky, the engine cut-out, it was coming straight at us, so my father took me down to the Morrision Shelter in the garden. However, for some reason it changed cause and took out a house some way away.
I also remember a particular air raid in London, in which all of the newsprint went up, the paper burnt and went up in the air. The next day I remember picking up bits of burnt newspaper, and as you know when paper is burnt the ink goes white. So, there was my dad and I trying to read the news off these bits of burnt paper. Whilst on the subject of collecting, as kids we also used to collect pieces of shrapnel, which we then sold to the scrap merchant.
After about a year in to the war, I was evacuated to, North Wales. I spent the rest of the war there. Where I was, was just a short distance from the coast, from where I used to watch the RAF have their gunnery practise against floating targets in the Irish Sea.
Gordon Afflick, dictated to Ian Nutley at Bedford 3rd June 2004.
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