大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Age Concern, Dorchester on behalf of Mr C Gray, and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Gray fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was 2 years old at the start of the war and lived in Chestnut Cottage near Aveton Gifford, Devon with my mother and my elder brother, Tony. Tony was 1陆 years older than me. Father was regular Navy, a Petty Officer, and was at sea. Dad didn鈥檛 see me for 3 years after I was born because he was serving in China. He came home on leave about 1940.

In June 1943, my brother and I were walking the 2陆 miles from the village to the farm where our cottage was 鈥� we were then 5 and 6陆 years old. On the way there was a gun battery manned by soldiers with a 40mm gun. As we passed the Army camp we heard the drone of aeroplanes coming from the direction of Plymouth (where there had been a daylight raid). Being curious little boys, we climbed up onto the top of the hedge. As we climbed the hedge, the guns opened up on the aeroplanes. These planes were flying virtually at eye level, just above our heads. As they were almost over the village the first plane jettisoned a bomb or two of which at least one landed on the church. Part of the church was demolished. Tony and I saw the church 鈥渆xplode鈥� with bits of stone flying in all directions. We also saw a further bomb from another plane that landed on the roof of a house in the main street of the village. It demolished the roof, ricocheted off over a small river, landing in a field where it blew up. Earth and grass was flying in all directions, leaving a large crater.

During our time sitting on top of the hedge, a soldier, seeing us, ran up to us and pushed us down into a ditch. Once the German planes had gone, we resumed our walk home only to meet mother running down the road shouting, 鈥淢r Hitler, Mr Hitler, you鈥檝e hurt my two little boys, I鈥檒l kill you鈥�. The next day we went down to inspect the damage.

We lived in a rented cottage on a farm. The farmer鈥檚 wife used to give us butter, milk straight from the cooler, eggs and ham or bacon when a pig was slaughtered. When the prisoners of war dug the fields for potatoes, mother, my brother and I used to search for the potatoes that they had missed and used to get 3 or 4 bags of potatoes. We also took the kale tops, turnips and Swedes. We got apples from the cider orchards. There were plenty of rabbits around, which we used to catch in snares. Tony and I used to take the rabbits we had caught and sell them to the village butcher.

I remember many fields and roads in the area being covered in amphibious vehicles and other vehicles with ammunition all parked up 鈥� we didn鈥檛 know why. Then one morning we woke up and the whole lot had gone.

We had evacuees from Slapton Sands (Devon) living at the farmhouse (so that the Americans could take over the Slapton area to practise landings for D-Day).

We used to collect silver paper dropped from the German planes. At Christmas we used the silver paper to make decorations.

My brother and I resented Dad鈥檚 home leaves because he took mother鈥檚 attention away from us.

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