大象传媒

[This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Margaret Jones from Three Counties Action at the Glenn Miller Festival on behalf of Wendy Lewis and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs. Lewis fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.]

I was born in 1939, 3 weeks before the War started. My dad worked in London as a consultant engineer and was exempted from War Service but he worked in the Home Guard. A man working for him was killed in the War so he signed up in 1941 and became an officer in the Royal Engineers bomb disposal unit in Italy. He fell in love with Italy but he never went back afterwards. He saw Rome and was in Milan when Mussolini was strung up. He was building bridges and was behind enemy lines not far from Monte Casino and Naples. He was away for 2 years without any leave and when he returned home with a moustache I did not recognise him and was scared. When my father came home on leave, I told him I wanted a baby brother or sister. He said he would see what he could do but later said he had received a letter from the hospital saying they were sorry but we couldn鈥檛 have one without my mother being there as well.
He was proud of his record and talked about the War and how he had received shrapnel in his arm. He was a member of the British Legion until he died.

We had evacuees billeted with us during the War. One was an Austrian with a 15 year old son who became my father substitute. When my father returned in 1945, the evacuees had to go. I remember I was upset but my mother was glad to see them go.

I remember eating dried bananas because of the rationing and my mother telling the dustmen off for putting a crust of bread in the dustbin. The teacher used to ask us for our sweets.

When the bombs landed we didn鈥檛 go to the Air Raid shelter, we hid under the table, sometimes 5 of us. I went to a little private school which had just 10 pupils in three sections, all taught together. I had a little red gas mask with Mickey Mouse on it. I remember hearing the buzz bombs, the silence then the bombs dropping. The bombers were mainly going to De Havillands but hit St. Albans by mistake. I also remember seeing a dogfight above our garden and as the pilot parachuted out, the German pilot shot him.

When the boiler copper went into holes, it was my mother who soldered it.

There were 2 POW camps in St. Albans and one in Harpenden. After the War, the Italians from there stayed on and opened their own ice cream company.

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