大象传媒

The 17th of September 1938 was my wedding day.It was cool and windy but it was a good time with family nd friends.We had bought a nice little house of our own to go back to. I remember when on that first week I went to the butcher and he shouted 'Peace in our time', the words of Camberlain after he went to see Hitler. Well so much for that , a year later war was declared. In May I realised I was pregnant and on 14th February 1940, Anne was born. On June the 1st. my husband Harold was called up.He was put in the RASC because he could drive.
This was a big change of life all round. We had a shelter in the garden but my nextdoor neighbours moved and I hardly nknew any of the other neighbours, so in April 1940 I moved to Nechells to be near to my family. After only a few days an incendary bomb dropped on my house. We were all in the shelter and when the fireman came and told me what had happened I was devastated. I lost all my wedding presents and my three piece suite was put into the garden where it was rained upon. My husband was given compassionate leave and I then moved up to Yorkshire for a few months, near to where he was stationed. When my husband was then sent to Northumberland I decided to go home, bombs or not. The landlord had repaired the roof of my house and redecorated the bedroom but the smell of burning lingered and I stayed mostly with my mother. We spent most nights down the air raid shelter, from dusk till dawn. Our friend Mrs. Cooksey would bring her flask of whisky for comfort.We also took a bucket ! My sister Olive and I would chew raw Tapioca all night and drank a few drops of our friend's whiskey. One night we had a bomb only 4 yards from our shelter. A screaming bomb, the worst kind, you could hear them getting closer and closer. The shelter shook and the candle went out.My baby daughter was covered in dust. I went crazy and picked her up and cleaned the dust from her mouth. She wasn't crying and that really scared me but thank God she was non the worse for it all. Also my brother in law heard the bomb coming and took cover in the doorway of the shelter. The blast threw him inwards and the rim of his tin hat cut open the head of a lady who was in there. Four houses in our road were hit and two people sheltering in an entry were killed. Once we had an unexploded bomb in the factory in our road and we were all evacuated to the local school. My house, which I had never settled in because of the burning smell, was hit again, this time by an HE bomb.My mother's house was hit too so we were all homeless. I stayed for a while with relatives but then moved to Stockland Green.
My husband Harold was transferred to The Military Police and spent a lot of time escorting U boat prisoners to London. He said they were all happy to be prisoners. Then he did point duty until D day, near Guildford. I spent 3 happy days at Datchet while Harold was stationed near there. I always remember seeing Joe Loss's house on the river. My husband then had embarkation leave in December 1944 and sailed in January to the Far East. He ended up in Armanager in India. By then the Japs were on the run so he stayed there until he left for home in December 1945

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