´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education’s reminiscence team on behalf of Dora Hills and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was sixteen years old and have a vivid memory of standing in the kitchen at Gresham’s School near Holt in Norfolk, hearing the announcement on the radio that we were at war with Germany. My mother had told me that if there was an air raid I should always take my handbag with me down to the shelter. The first air raid we had was during the night and the other girls thought it was hilarious me taking my bag — but my mother had told me to, and at that age you did as your mother said!

Gresham’s School moved to Cornwall but my parents weren’t keen on me going with them. Eventually I did go with them and it was like an adventure to me.

My cousin was on HMS Destroyer. I remember hearing on the radio that it had been sunk and that all aboard were missing. I felt really sad about losing my cousin, but there were many sad things happening. Some of the boys I went to school with never came back from the war.

At eighteen you were called up for munitions work, and I went to Letchworth in Hertfordshire. I wasn’t there long before I had a breakdown. I think it was due to all the noise in the factory. After that I worked in a doctor’s surgery in Holt.

I heard some dreadful things. A lady in Cornwall told me that she had gone there after losing all of her family — every house in her street had been flattened.

My mother was outside one morning, cleaning her windows, when a lone plane came over and machine-gunned the Methodist Church in Holt. She grabbed my brother and rushed indoors.

My sister told me that while she was working at the forestry a British plane which was limping home after a mission, collided with a house. The airmen were all killed, but the owner of the house was out at the time.

I felt sorry for the children with the rationing — most of them didn’t even know what a banana was. We had to be very careful with the food at Christmas and so didn’t have the sort of celebrations which we had known before the war.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.