大象传媒

In 1944 I lived in Lewis Street Pill: I was about 10 years old then. The Americans had a base at the corner of our street and filled the street with their lorries. The soldiers were very generous with their rations and gave us lots of sweets and chewing gum. I remember Hershey bars especially as we hadn't had chocolate since the begining of the war. They also gave me a baseball bat and catchers mitt,I wish I still had them, they might be worth something now. I remember the MPs driving around the streets looking for deserters and trouble makers.

The schools stayed open all through the war. In my Class at Bolt Street School we had a group of Dutch children. They sat at the back of the class and talked to each other in Dutch but didn't speak to us much. Mr Percy Edmunds was the headmaster at that time.

We spent many nights in the Anderson shelter in the back garden. Looking back they weren't very strong, just a galvanised steel arch half buried in the ground but it made us feel safe. Another thing that made us feel safe was the Artillery Battery on Barrack Hill. They blazed away every time German planes came over. I don't know if they ever hit anything but the sound of the guns was comforting. There were big air raid shelters built in the street as well, made out of brick and concrete, there were always two entrances just in case one got blocked. I don't think they would have survived a direct hit but they made us feel better too.

Food was rationed so most people grew their own vegetables in whatever garden they had, my Grancha kept chickens in his back garden. We didn't have much in the way of rations but we were probably healthier for it. We did beg sweets and chewing gum from the Americans and usually got some. My Dad worked on the tugs in the docks so he had a special seaman's ration book, it was big and white. He got a bit extra on the rations because of his work.

There was a prisoner of war camp for German soldiers down the Lighthouse. I was riding an old bike(no inner tubes not even tyres)along the road there when I crashed into a group of them. They laughed and one of them said " How did we ever lose the war?" At the end of the war they were all marched up to Newport Railway Station in town and shipped out. Most went back to Germany but some had met British girls and stayed here with them. Some of the POWs gave their heavy winter coats to people who asked for them.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.