大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education鈥檚 reminiscence team on behalf of Brian Denmark and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When the war started I was nine. The first thing I remember was my father and two older brothers digging an air raid shelter in the garden. The trouble was that it quickly filled with water so we couldn鈥檛 use it! We had two evacuees fro a fortnight, but my mother couldn鈥檛 manage them as she had four young children of her own.

Being in Hethersett, five miles from Norwich, we could see Norwich being bombed and on fire, and hear the bangs. There was a fuel dump for the aerodromes at Hethersett Station and most of the workers who built it came over from Ireland. One of these Irishmen was billeted with us while the building went on.

In 1942 my two older brothers went into the Navy. One was on an Aircraft Carrier and travelled around the Pacific and to America and Australia. The other was on a landing craft and he went on the Tour of Italy. Later he was at Anzio, and then in the south of France.

In Hethersett we had an Auxillliary Fire Brigade run by Charlie Emms. We also had a Home Guard and my father was one of them. We had two pits which the Home Guard used as firing ranges.

If we heard the air raid siren at school we had to run out of school and find ditches to sit in as there was no school shelter. Sometimes the ditches had water in! In school we had an open fire and a tortoise stove. On Friday afternoons the eldest boys had to go out into the country and fill sacks with sticks and wood to heat the school.

In 1942 the Yanks came and they had an HQ at Ketteringham Hall. I had a job delivering papers on a Sunday and I would sometimes tell customers that the papers hadn鈥檛 been printed so that I could then sell them to the Yanks for twice the money!

At the end of the war we had a homecoming fund which was organised by Mr Percy Hagg and his staff. They would hold various functions, such as dances, to raise money for when the troops cam home. Enough was raised to give each of them 拢10 when they did come home.

There were a few bombs dropped in the village. The first one, I was about 12 and working in a store on a Saturday afternoon. A Jerry came over and dropped an aerial torpedo which landed in a field near Hethersett Hall. The next bombs were dropped about quarter of a mile from Hethersett Station and the fuel dump. More bombs were dropped near the Queen鈥檚 Head pub. The ground was so soft that the bombs went really far down and when they exploded they did no damage at all, even though they were only 5 yards from someone鈥檚 door.

We lived in the Council houses. One night we heard a plane followed by a whizzling noise. Father said 鈥淨uick, get under your beds鈥�. The bombs landed in the field outside but because the ground was so soft they did no damage.

We used to go and watch the Yankee planes go out from Hethel near Ketteringham. Often there were lots missing when they came back.

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