大象传媒

I was born in 1932 and was only 7 seven when war broke out. I remember very little initially but can recall the day that France fell although I didnt really understand completely what it meant at the time.
We were very close to Beaulieu Aerodrome and my parents and Aunty and Uncle entertained many of the RAF pilots who were based there and I know that some appeared a few times and then didnt return.
Many times we witnessed dog fights in the skies over our normally peaceful village and Brockenhurst was actually bombed, I think because German bombers offloaded what they had left from bombing Southampton. The grocers shop opposite our home was cut in half by one bomb and I was amazed to see the front of the building looking like a dolls house with the furniture still in place. One family, who lived close to the railway line were killed outright.
We had our own evacuee who was Dorothy Baker. Her husband was in the Army and she came to live with us as she had had a very bad time in Portsmouth, but she was still very frightened when the Doodlebugs came over the house. We all were, especially when the engines stopped.
Prior to D Day the village was "invaded" by the Americans. Their trucks lined the roads whilst they were waiting to be sent to France. They were quite cheerful and we children loved to visit them, especially when they gave us much missed candy.
My Father, Jack, was in the Home Guard and he also worked at Harland and Woolf in Southampton when he was conscripted for war work as he was too old to join in the fighting. Whilst he was away my Mother drove taxis and I remember the lights had metal caps over them with slits, so that she could hardly see where she was going and very often met New Forest ponies and cows on the roads.
I consider myself very lucky that I was really too young to understand fully the terrible times we went through and think now that my parents must have worried an awful lot about our future, especially as we were so near to the South Coast.

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