大象传媒

It's 1941, and Bill was home from the Royal Navy on seven days leave. In those days it was typical to go to the pictures in town. A bit more expensive, but hey, this could be our last time together for a while.

By this time, Bill had been on several ships. First, The Adventure, which was sunk by a mine, and second, a depot ship called The Hecla. This ship hit a gas mine, killing many men. Instead of proceeding to East Africa, it had to be sent to Durham for repairs. Then Bill sailed to the Med on a ship called The Megan, which was hit by six torpedos. Bill was working as a gunner on the deck at the time, and was blown away from the ship. This saved his life. He was picked up my an American ship after 16 hours in the water. Hundreds of his comrades perished.

Well, here we are in The Forum, Lime Street. Cosy, warm together, holding hands, the war far away. THEN the dreaded notice on the screen came. An air raid was in progress, and we were strongly advised to leave. We decided not to, and stayed until the end. When we emerged, all hell had let loose, Liverpool was on fire, bombs dropping, guns blazing, people screaming! We were ushered to Lime Street Station, to take cover in the basement. We stayed there until 5.30AM.

We walked to the central bus stop, hoping to get transport to Litherfield where we lived. We were lucky that we were going to the depot in Hawthorne Road. I remember the cold air, as the bus had no windows in. We sped through Bootle, which was absolutley devastated. All the shops were bombed, fires blazed in every street. Even at that early hour, someone had put a notice outside a badly damaged shop saying; OPEN FOR BUSINESS....

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