大象传媒

As a twelve year old we thought the declaration of war was exciting - as all my uncles had served in the first world war - until we heard the first siren, then reality set in and every body dived for cover! The school cloakroom was re-inforced with wooden props as a shelter. We were issued with gas masks. We had mock exercises - drills and every time the siren went we had to go to these re-inforced cloakrooms. As we got more blase we stopped going. We also took over the school grounds and started digging them up as part of the Dig for Victory rally. Part of the playing field was also dug up. I left school at 15 and became a fire service messenger for the AFS - Auxhilary Fire Service in Mill St Bedford. Once a week we were on duty all night to help the fire crews because there were no such things as moible phones. We had to ring messages through to the station to report on fires. We also helped with first aid.

I remember the Russell Park and Mill Meadows area being bombed. They dropped incendiary bombs in baskets so they spread hundreds at a time - next day we walked in groups looking for holes and had to dig them out before they went off - all public thoroughfares of course.

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