大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Sarah Cooper at the AGC Museum on behalf of Phil Yates and has been added to the site with his permission. Phil Yates fully understand's the site's terms and conditions.

Although I started my schooling at a preparatory school in 1932 I was transferred to a boys grammer school in 1938, a year before the outbreak of the Second World War. I remember air-raid shelters being built in the large playing fields of that school and we regularly had "air-raid" exercises to see which form would reach their particular air raid shelter first. My form generally came last, for some reason!! I lived in Winchester, which was considered a relatively safe town although it was only 12 miles from Southampton and 28 miles from Portsmouth, both of which suffered severe damage from the German bombers. The Portsmouth Grammer School for Boys were evacuated to Winchester and for a time they shared our school buildings which meant we were taught in the mornings while the Portsmouth boys took lessons in the afternoon - I thought "This is good - only attending school for half a day" - it didn't last long however as alternative accomodation was soon found for the Portsmouth School.

By 1942 I was old enough to do "fire-watching" on the school premises. We were on a strict rota - 4 boys on duty every night (with a master) from 10pm to 7am; again this worked out well as we were allowed the following day off!! We had to catch up on lessons though, the best way we could. The duty consisted of patrolling the school and playing fields through the nights and if there was an air-raid in the vicinity (mostly coming from Southampton) then we were on special alert!! I was on my way to school one morning in February 1943 when a lone "Jerry" flew over Winchester followed by a Spitfire. The "Jerry" unloaded its bombs over a part of Winchester, not far from where I was walking - I soon dashed into the nearest house for shelter. The bombs caused considerable damage to some properties resulting in a number of casualties, some fatal. Otherwise Winchester was very lucky : it was rumoured that Hitler didn't want to bomb the city as he was planning to be "crowned" in the Norman Cathedral when conquering our country. Thank goodness it was only a dream - in his mind!!

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