大象传媒

I was born on the tenth day of September, 1940. A little too young to remember much of the Second World War? Wrong! I have heaps of memories.

The thing I remember most is the noise as the naval base at Portland was bombed. I was trying to sleep about twelve miles away but the noise kept intruding into my dreams. Being very young I had no idea of modern military matters and I had a dream that all of the noise was being made by red-coated soldiers with bearskins on their heads.

I remember looking up into the sky and seeing aeroplanes chasing each other. Like a game of catch. But some of them just whizzed straight to the ground with smoke coming out.

I remember seeing loads of American tanks, parked close to each other, with American soldiers looking out of the turrets. All of their teeth were brilliant white and that was the first time in my life that I had seen a black man. I remember looking up at this enormous tank and saying to its occupant:
"Got any gum, chum?"

I remember my auntie distraught, her Yank being killed on the first wave. He used to call me "Lallie".

I remember the postwoman. No postmen in those days. They were all away.

I remember Uncle Fred coming back from Burma. He put his socks under my nose and the smell was horrible. We were short of space so he had to sleep in the bath. Must have been like heaven to him after the horrors of jungle warfare.

The last thing I remember was on the Island of Portland. There was a hut there where we used to go. One day I was in another hut where a lady had a radio and she suddenly got all excited and told me to go and tell my gran that something called "VJ Day" had happened. I ran along the short grass to tell Gran but she didn't believe me and had to go and ask the lady herself. One of the disadvantages of being only five years old and being entrusted with such earth-shattering messages.

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