大象传媒

Entered on behalf Elizabeth Hooker (Florence Young)

I was 21 Years of age when the war started. My father being far sighted had taken over an allotment, put fruit trees in the garden and reinforced our cellar. I worked for associated British cinemas and at the beginning the cinemas were closed and we were sent home and told to wait for instructions. Two weeks afterwards we were contacted to report back to the office, and because civilians needed entertaining the cinemas were reopened. My particular boss was called up, so I was given his job which meant a reserved occupation, (which meant we were doing a man鈥檚 job). Our offices were located in Golden square, just of Piccadilly so this was where I did my fire watching , on top of the roof of a six story building.

In 1941 with the battle of Britain things were fairly quiet in London. But the actual bombing started in 1942 and that was terrifying, there was no other word for it. For example, when they were bombing the docks you would get one wave after another.

Then there was the problem of getting backwards and forwards to work, I lived in Walthamstow, I would have to go to Liverpool station and go to Piccadilly on the underground. I used to leave the office at 5.30 and make my way home, mother would meet me with my supper on a tray and I would go to the cellar where I would spend the rest of the night, mainly sleeping and playing cards.

Often people would use the underground as an air raid shelter to sleep in.

I married and my husband was with the RAF and his wing went to Russia to Murnansk (near the Arctic Circle) to train the Russians to fly the Hurricanes. He was a flight mechanic and worked on the flight boards on the planes. When they first arrived they were given refreshments the officers and the men ate together and they had waitress service. That only lasted one day! On that part of the coast the German lines were only about 15 miles away so there was a lot raids and they were busy all the time.

Meanwhile back in London surviving the raids I was very popular amongst my friends and relatives because working in the film industry I had access to all the West End cinemas so when the boys came home on leave I was the first person they would come and see, and as a thank you they would take me dancing to Convent Garden.

I did not spend all my time in London I had a girl friend whose mother lived in Hastings and although it was a forbidden area, family were allowed to visit. Hasting was occupied by the Canadian air force so quite often you would be in the Warrior Square and you would have a German fighter who would be machine gunning the public so you would have to dive for cover. Unfortunately the German secret service must have realised that the Canadians were stationed there, so one day whilst these chaps were queuing for their food they came over and bombed them, consequently the Canadians were moved.

Then the Americans arrived, I did voluntary work for the American red cross in Helms Crescent, Knightsbridge. Most of the men coming through belonged to the medical core, their head quarters were in Cirencester. I had a younger brother, who was 9, who had never been evacuated so some weekends I would take him to Cirencester because he liked to watch the basketball, and we would always go out eat. The basketball would be played between teams made up of the Americans.

One of the worst experiences was the flying bombs, as you had no warning. I recall one day doing my hair in the bathroom and the blast of a bomb nearby forced the bathroom window frame inwards then pulled it back to its normal position and had taken the curtains with it, trapping them between the frame and the architrave.
Just after this bomb my friend had a flying bomb land in her road and the glass of their house was completely destroyed and each portion of glass was no larger that a fingernail such was the force of the bomb.

A close friend and companion, Arthur Richard Moore was in the merchant navy at 17 he was on the 1941 Atlantic run he was in one year, torpedoed twice and bombed once, he managed to survive and later became a member of the honourable company of Master Mariners. Commencing in 1940 when he was a cadet, by the age of 24 he was fully qualified.

Once of my cousins, Stanton Russell had joined the RAF as a navigator for bomber command. In 1942 during a raid over Dortmund their bomber was badly damaged. They got back to England and in landing they exploded and went up in flames, the read gunner was the only one saved.

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