大象传媒

I was 10 years old when the war began.The month I started High School. My father had been recalled to the navy. He was 50 years old,not on the reserve list but his experience was needed. Both my brothers were then enlisted into the navy. I never remember a feeling of despair. I often heard my mother say that it was the last battle that counted.
I remember one day, after a particularly nasty blitz the night before, walking past allotments, along a railway line collecting pieces of shrapnel when I spotted a parachute attached to a very large cylinder about 4 ft long. I am not sure if it was a land mine or a flare. I did know that I wanted the silk or the cords of the parachute. What underclothes or even dresses could be made with it. I sent my friends on to the signal box to alert the ARP and waited fairly near the parachute. In a short while, army trucks and soldiers appeared and I was sent packing. I felt very cross at the time but of course looking back, realize how silly it was to stand so close.
I think that the men who disabled these weapons must have been special. To take apart a bomb,not knowing when it would go off, keepng your mind clear and stopping your hands from shaking, not just once but time and time again. What bravery!

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