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Fights and frights in Salisbury

It was full of troops in Salisbury; full of people walking about all over the place — you could see we were at war. There were a lot of Army and Air-force people. It was a garrison town in a way. It was busy in the evenings when they used to come to town — it was bedlam! You couldn’t get a drop of beer anywhere; the pubs were full.
I remember how once there were fights going on between the Yanks and the Canadians that was on the Fisherton Bridge. Once I happened to come along with a lady with all that lot there — the Yanks on one side and Canadians on the other- and had to walk through that lot too get to the other side. All the MPs came along blowing their whistle and everyone ready to start a fight, but the MPs just pushed them out of the way.
Salisbury was very lucky as there were only two or three frights. There was the pheasant Inn, and a couple of bombs along the railway by Skew Bridge — I remember that well and Moberly Road was bombed. Someone’s house was bombed out and they were still in the bath!
The blackout of course was complete. Along the Wilton Road there used to be an army place full of officers and a lot of the houses were commandeered by the army. My mother in law told me that she had troops staying with her and she had extra rations for them. It was home from home for them.

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