大象传媒

[This story was submitted to the People's War site by Emma a volunteer from Cedars Upper School on behalf of Rose Prior and has been added to the site with her permission. Rose Prior fully understands the site's terms and conditions".]

When the war broke out I was eight getting on for nine in October and I remember Chamberlain's speech. I lived in Lidlington, Bedfordshire, a small country village. My dad was in the R.A.F. A boy's school from London were evacuees, boys were only in the village, no girls. They stayed during the war, they were from Walthamstow and the teacher taught us and came with them, he was very strict. I remember a Doodlebug going past the window, flames went past and Mother prayed that the engine wouldn't stop, it was headed for Cranfield. It fell just short of it and fell in a field no harm caused.
American troop trains went through the station and they said, "Do you want some gum, Chum?" and they threw out instant coffee. They gave us chocolate. They leant out of the carriage windows and spoke to us. They were called 'Yanks'.They threw us instant coffee but we didn't know what it was.
My grandmother had an evacuee called George, he read my brothers' comics. You had to have an evacuee in the rooms in your house at the time. In our village it was only boys, from London. My mother gave up her room to a R.A.F officer and his wife, they came to stay in the house.
There was an aeroplane that crashed in the 3rd field behind our garden. I went and collected shrapnel from where we lived. I tried to enquire what nationality it was. I have memories of bombers going out, I watched from my mother's window, from a nearby airfield.
I lived in fear of Germans coming down in parachutes, I was 10 or 11. My mother shouldn't have told me this. I was the eldest of four children.
Americans would come to a pub called 'The Green Man' and talked to my mother over the garden fence. The Italian Prisoners of War used to go around singing all the time, the village was swarming with them. They all pinched the swings and they all wore big crossses on their necks, being Catholics. I remember going for a walk with my sister and passed a group of German Prisoners of War. One of them went for a walk with my sister although I kept an eye on her. I've seen people in the papers, so I recognised them.
Rationing, sugar was rationed and fat/ margerine to 2 ounces to last a week. I was so skinny, I was always hungry, if there was a dry crust lying around then I'd eagerly devour it.
Down the steep hill in Lidlington, Beds. came lots of tanks parked up along the high street, the housewives brought out tea for them. One of the soldiers lifted me up, there wasn't much room and I sat in the tank, then was lifted out again. They could have been on their way to Dunkirk, June 1940.
The soldiers had campfires in the nearby field. They were cooking on them. My father warned us no to go into a field with other soldiers or to talk to the Italians, although we were invited to a field and we said "no".
There was a party at the top of my road for VJ day. The actual events of VJ were terrible. we all rejoiced when it came to an end. People gave what they could do it, for the children. There was an American there, his name was Eddie, he was in with the villagers. we had a great old time. The photo was published in a local newspaper/council mag.
Also, there was a camp for displaced persons, between Lidlington and Marston. there were people from all over the world. They were all men and they couldn't go back after the war. They were in the displaced person's camp. I had my first kiss from one of them from Estonia, he said he was a doctor, I never saw him again. I was 16 and the war had finished.
I remember my father was a very strict man and we cheered when he left to go back to the R.A.F. He was very scottish, you know.
My father volunteered to be a Reartail Gunner in a Lancaster bomber, a most dangerous job. My mother wrote back and warned about the children and he withdrew. I remember my mum telling me to get under my bed when the air raid sounded. It was a very scary and terrible noise.
My brother before the end of the war had never seen a banana before. There was a lot of bread around because it was cooked in the village by our baker. I was always hungry, hunt around for food. My mother made a christmas cake with elderberrries and it was the most awful thing.
All the berries tasted bitter. My mother would never let me cook, because she couldn't afford to. There was still rationing till 1952, I think. We were all happy when the war ended.
My father had memories of women who fratinised with the Germans and they had all their hair shaved off.
My Uncle was an R.A.P warden, he told people to turn their lights out. I was getting dressed at my aunt's house in a cupboard with a candle and he shouted "Put that light out!" When you went for a walk you had to have somnething to point the light of your torch downwards so there was a spot on the floor. Blackout, we had to put these up at the windows, when it got dark. It was a hook that clipped onto a wooden frame. No light was allowed through.
"Think before you speak, because you don't know who's listening!"

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