大象传媒

I was born in Portsmouth inMarch 1933 and we lived at Drayton which is situated on the slopes of Portsdown Hill.
The first time I heard the Air raid siren it frightened me and my mother had to console me and explained that it was a warning to tell us that the re was an air raid and that we would have to get in a safe place .
Soon, men came and erected an Air Raid Shelter in the garden. Ours was known as an "Anderson",and was set into a hole about four feet deep, and consisted of corrugated iron sheets, about eight feet long, and curved into an arc at one end.
Two sheets werestood upright in the hole with the curved ends being bolted to-gether to form an arch.
Then further sheets were placed side by side to make a tunnel.depending on the size of the family to be accomodated,more sheets were added to give sufficient room.
Flat ends were placed in position, and the whole tunnel was then covered with the earth taken from the hole.
Wooden bunks were provided for sleeping,and at the height of the German air raids,[or Blitzes ] it was normal to go down the shelter every night at bed time and sleep there till morning, because we were bombed every night for quite a long time.
As a defensive measure, heavy gun enplacements were placed along the crest of Portsdown Hill, and these guns were known as "Big Berthas",and would fire at the German aircraft as they flew in over the English Channel to drop their bombs on Port
smouth and the Dockyard.
At the height of a raid the noise was deafening.
Next morning, we would go in search of "shrapnel"
which was jagged pieces of metal from the exploded bombs.
Later, when I was 11, I was evacuated to Winchester
because the school to which I had passed exams to enter had been moved there for safety.
By this time my father had been called up into the army, my brother was already evacuated to the same school, so my poor Mum was left to cope at home, not knowing what would become of her family.

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