大象传媒

At the beginning of the second world war, I was staying with my mother-in-law in North Lodge Terrace, Darlington. When the air raid siren went off, it was a terrible noise. We went into the air raid shelter. A bomb was dropped in Northgate. The police station was hit and wiped out. No civilians were killed in Darlington yet West Hartlepool was wiped out. The pilots had to drop any bombs which were not used before going back over the North Sea to Germany.

I listened to the radio when the German submarine got into Scapa Flow in scotland and sank several battle ships which were sheltering there. My husband and I went to Watford which was 7 miles from London and the bombers went over every night. I was terrified. Den used to put the light out and pulled the blackout to one side so he could see them go over. One night the street, three away from where we were staying, was bombed and several people were killed. We were very lucky. We could see London burning. The night incendery bombs were dropped, London was wiped out.

We listened on the radio the night the bombers set fire to Coventry and another of our cities were wiped out. We went ot Coventry after the war was over and the City was being built again. There was a cross made of burnt wood which said Father forgive them.

We heard on the radio the night a German battleship was hiding in another county. I cannot remember which one and our battleships were waiting to take the crew prisoners. The crew sank their own ship rather than spend the rest of the war held in our country.

I had a brother-in-law, he was 1st Officer in the Royal Navy and was on the Murmansk run. The Merchant Navy were taking goods to Russia and bringing back ammunition to England. They had to go in convoy. The Merchant Navy in centre and the Royal Navy on the outside. This was to protect the ships from submarines. The order was none of the ships had to stop to pick up survivors, so men were left dying in the bitterly cold sea.

Maurice's ship was hit and the captain killed. They had to burn or destroy any papers on board, which Maurice did. He was taken on to the submarine and asked if he was Captain, he said yes. Maurice was very blonde and fitted Hitlers Ayran race. They were shooting the men floating in the water, but they let Maurice go in the life boat which he was in for seven days with out food or water and throwing men overboard when they were dead. He was picked up by a Brazilian ship and taken to Brazil, where he was cared for, then got a ship which brought him back to England.

p.s Maurice got married and became a Headmaster. He later got Alzheimers disease. He had a carer. This morning I got word from his niece. Maurice passed away at 11pm Sunday.

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