大象传媒

During the war I lived in the country, and one day in 1943, my father said that something had fallen through the air, just as I had arrived.

Eventually two young German airmen aged 17 or 18 years, gave themselves up at the local pub The Bricklayers arms at Westcott in Surrey.

I was only 17 years old myself at the time. I must have passed them on the road. I was scared at the thought that I was probably being watched by the enemy, as I walked along the road on my own. They must have been equally as frightened when they saw me.

I was working in the Fire Service, which meant you were part of "The Emergency Services". One morning there was a terrible noise, and a dreadful explosion. These were unmanned planes that were launched from France and flew until they ran out of fuel and exploded where they dropped. This was the beginning of the "Buzz Bombs" otherwise known as the V1 or doodlebug.

On general duty anything could happen. We had to deal with whatever crisis occurred. This could be putting out a fire, mending telephone cables or manning the telephones so we could liaise with other Fire stations. We were asked to mend hoses, to do this we used galvanising equipment to mend the splits.

大象传媒 shift was 24 hours on and 24 hours off. This was a long shift and you became incredibly tired.

I can also remember just prior to the invasions on D-Day the lines of soldiers marching down the road to the coast. They were going to France along with Canadian nurses.

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