大象传媒

This story has been contributed to the People's War by the 大象传媒 Learning Centre, Gloucester, on behalf of Bernard Cragg with his permission.

I was nine when war broke out and my younger sister was seven. Dad joined the reserve militia in 1936 and he joined the Royal Army Service Corps on September 2nd 1939. He was 38 and one of the oldest men in his unit.

He served in France, Italy, Sicily and North Africa and I only saw him once in all that time when he came home from Dunkirk. We were all amazed when he produced a souvenir of his time in France. It was a beer glass with the words 'Biere du Coq Blanq' that he had commandeered on his way to Dunkirk and put in his pack.

He spent days on the beach at Dunkirk waiting to be picked up, because he couldn't swim. He told us later that he dived from shell-hole to shell-hole for shelter, in the belief that a shell never struck the same place twice.

Then he had to wade out up to his neck in water several times in the hope of being picked up before he finally was. How that glass survived all that I'll never know, but I still have it today and when I have a drink out of it it always tastes special. I'm glad to say Dad came through the war unscathed too.

We were living in Cheshire and I had to look after my little sister while Mum worked in a munitions factory. We were near Manchester which was blitzed and I used to collect shrapnel. We were in the air raid shelter with Mum one night when there was a bomb dropped nearby. We wondered if the house would still be standing when we came out. I said to Mum "What would Dad say when he comes home and finds the house has been bombed?" and I remember very clearly her reply.
"Bugger your Dad, what will we do?"

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