大象传媒

I as just 10 years old when the war started.We lived very close to Hoernchirch aerodrome. I remember listening to the broadcast by Neville Chamberlain and wondering what it would mean to us. About 20 minutes afetwards I heard the sirens sounding and I remember beubg very worried, expecting a gas attack as we had been told that we must keep our gas masks with us.
School was suspended as such. We went to school every day to collect some homework and to have yesterday's marked. It was good fun having so much spare playtime and a group of us formed our own gang. There was little or no road traffic so we could play in the streets without danger. We used tohelp some of the delivery people - the "egg lady", the Grocery man and the "vegetablelady" fetching and carrying as much as we could. Many children in my area were evacuated and I rememberseeing many of my friends with their bags and cases getting into buses and coaches as they left.
During the "Battle of Britain" we watched dog-fights and the vapour trails up in the sky and headrd the machine guns firing. Many bombs dropped around us at this time and we all collected shrapnel and took pleasure in showing off our latest finds.

One day we saw a parachute coming down and followed it to a nearby field. Many people came with pitchforks and other objects to uyse as weapons - just in case. It was a young German pilot and he was taken away by the Police.

At the time of the anti-personell bombs we found a tin which was full of "rollers batherd in oil". We took it to the local War Reserve Policeman who built a wall of sandbags around it and called for the Army. It turned out ot be a tinof cigarettes which had become waterlioged and the nicotine had formed the "oil". The Policeman blamed us for making a fool of him and he kept chasing us. We dodged an Army guard around a cxrashed German bomber and trid to get some souvenirs. Naturally, we were caught and in trouble with the Police and Army.

We had an Anderson shelter in the back garden which had an internal lining of concrete toi make it waterproof. On the first night of the blitz, my father who worked in London and was usually home by 9pm did not get home until after 3am having walked all the way dodging bombs and fires. We slept in the shelter, my brother and parents slkept on a mattress on the floor and I slept on a cot spring across the concrete. One night my brother sat up and sank into water which had seeped in through the "waterproofing". I thought I had the last laugh, until I had to walk through the water to get out. That shelter was abandoned and we slept underneath an old oak table until a morrison shelter was provided much later.

One day after a heavy raid a group of us fiound an unexploded parachute mine which had caught in some trees. We managed to cut away the paarachute and tool it away as a souvenir. Our parents were too honest and told the Police who recovered the parachute, but left us with some of the cords - after giving us a real telling off.

One night my brother and I were sitting on a setteee in front of the window after a bath The raid was getting heavy and my mother told us to get away from the window. I had just sat down on a pouffe in front of the fire when "it" happened. All I can realy remember is my mother shaking me and calling out for me to speak. I was choking inm soot and had difficulty in breathing or swallowing. Apparently a parachute mine had exploded just outside the bottom of our garden. As the fire was bloiwn into the room, I was somehow sucked into the fireplace and covered in soot. The windos had blown in and the settee on which we had been sitting was covered in glass and debris. The ceilings had fallen in and the place was a bit of a shambles. We walked to some friend about 2 miles away and on the way suddenly realised that my mother, who had been paralysed from the waist down folloiwing a nervous breakdown did not have her crutches with her. The shock of the explosion had restored her power to walk. I lost some of my schoolfriends that night as our area had been severely damaged.

The house, an end of terrace, had somehow separated from next door, at the front, some of the curtains had been drawn into the gap which then clkosed, trapping the curtains completely

As our heouse was temporarily uninhabitablke, we wne to live with my grqndparents in Hull. We arrived there just in time for their blitz. Luckily we were living on the outskirts and apart from noise had no worries. We later returned hom anfter "war-damage-repairs" had ben carried out andf resumed a "normal" life. We saw many "doodlebugs" and rocket damage, but nothing too close.

The excitement of a possible "second-front" was in everyones minds and I can clearly remember seeing the sky "full" of gliders and aeroplanes and the knowledge that "IT" had started. We followed the adbvances of the troops on a map with cottoin joining pins iun places as the advance continued. I remeber the excitement of awaitiung the news of the surrender, especially as we knew that school was to be cancelled the following day (and homewrok could be postponed).

I was later in The Mall in London oon VJ Night and the thrill of being there on such an historical occasion, actually being part of the enthusiasm oif the crowds was something out of this world and noit to be missed.

Bryan Coates a Royal Liberty Schoolboy.

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