大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by Gillian Turner of Libraries and Heritage on behalf of Doris Bullingham and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

I have lived in Glemsford all my life. At the beginning of the war children were evacuated here from Leiston. Our neighbour Mrs Fairs had a little girl, but we didn't take any evacuees. We had no room, as my grandmother was living with us.
The nearest air raid sirens were at Long Melford or Clare and depending on which way the wind was blowing you could hear either. However we had no shelters. Early in the war a land mine was dropped up Cutts Lane by Court Farm, it hit a house that stood alone in the middle of fields. Luckily Mr and Mrs Lord were away for the weekend so they were alright. Even their two cats were not hurt, but the blast did some damage to houses in the village.
We were surrounded by aerodromes here, so we often used to watch the bombers going out on raids, and sometimes see the fighters come over doing the victory roll. We had several bombs dropped around, mostly when the bombers were being chased by our fighters and dropping their loads. As we were in the direct line for bombers going to London, we oftenstood in the back yard and saw the glow in the sky which was London burning.
I joined the WRNS in May 1943 as a cook. It was hard heavy work but I enjoyed it and made many friends, some are now dead, some I still keep in touch with. I was stationed at HMS Royal Arthur (Butlin's Holiday Camp) at Skegness. It was a training ship where boys came to join and get their uniforms and do about 6 weeks training. Lord Haw Haw sunk us twice so he said !
It was also the base for French, Belgian, Polish and Norwegian sailors.There were 4 galleys, in ours alone we cooked for 1800 to 2000 a day. While I was away bombs were dropped on what is now the playing field, and one dropped our side of the hedge at the top of the garden, that did not explode, so they had the bomb disposal team out.My mother and her neighbour Mrs Holt had to keep making them hot sweet black tea, they bought their own tea ration. Luckily they dug it out safely. It must have been about this time of year, as I was supposed to be coming home for the weekend. My mother told the sergeant in charge of the men "She might do, but don't be surprised if she doesn't. " I didn't as the invasion started and all leave was stopped.
At Skegness we watched the planes and gliders going out over to Arnham.
When the war ended we were at a dance in Camp. An Officer came on the stage and stopped the band. He said, "I have an announcement to make. The war in Europe is over. The Armistice will be signed tomorrow. The war with Japan is still on. Carry on dancing.
So we did.
Doris Bullingham

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