大象传媒

This story has been added to the People's war website by Marie on behalf of Norman with his permission. Norman fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

My school, Merry Oak in Southampton, closed at the outbreak of war with the issue of gas masks. I was thirteen and a half.

At 14 I applied for a job at the Spitfire factory by the floating bridge at Woolston. This was later bombed and moved to Hursley. I then went to work at Thorneycroft鈥檚 Woolston Works.

There was a system of air raids warning. The 鈥渨ailing鈥� type for locals and the 鈥減ips鈥� for the factory workers, when the bombers were over the Island. Shelters were arranged under the vessels as this was thought as safe as anywhere! There was also a brick built shelter with a 鈥減om pom鈥� gun on the roof. I am not keen on fireworks to this day!

On one occasion I was standing by a slit of a window in the shelter when I saw bombs exploding on the 鈥渃old store鈥� - this was burning for weeks afterwards. And to this day I can remember being blown back with a crowd of men by the blast!

My grandmother was confined to bed in Radstock Road, by Cramer鈥檚 Coal Yard - as I pushed my cycle home from work under the railway arch, I could see that a newsagents had taken a direct hit and I recall seeing newspapers stuck to the side of the building next door. My grandmother鈥檚 house had also taken a direct hit and her remains were never found in the rubble.

I lived in Merry Oak Road, Sholing. On the recreation ground (Veracity) not far from the house there was a barrage balloon. These were huge - the size of a house really, and when the wind blew they flopped and whistled. There was a saying 鈥渢he balloon is going up鈥� - this was supposed along with dozens of others around the town, to keep the enemy planes high above their target area where we lived. One dark night (black out of course) this balloon had blown our way and the wire caught under our roof guttering. The RAF came and released the balloon and got it free eventually.

An incendiary bomb damaged our house and we went to live with relatives in Bishops Waltham, Alresford. I returned to Southampton during the raids to commence as an apprentice at Thorneycrofts. I also remember shopping in Bitterne Road and saw a fighter plane machine-gunning Bursledon Road. Looking around the district today of course you can see where the gaps were and new houses built.

Another time, I was going to Winchester by bus and a gent next to me asked what a building was. I replied that it was Ordinance Survey HQ - the next day it was bombed, and I always thought it was my fault. Careless talk costs lives!

I also went to London to a rally in Westminster Hall when a flying bomb landed close by and the ground vibrated and the large chandelier swayed from side to side.

I remember avoiding folk sleeping on the platform of the underground. Also being on a train from Portsmouth to Woolston when the train was halted by air raids on Southampton and Portsmouth and seeing the raid from a good vantage point at Portchester.

My son-in-law tells me that his Dad, now deceased, was in the Royal Engineers. He was stationed on the forts in the Solent at first but when Belsen was liberated he was one of the first in. One could see the pictures but the smell could not be repeated. He had nightmares for months after. When he was released from service he worked for Thorneycrofts as a plater.

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