大象传媒

In May 1941, there was about five or six nights of severe bombing over the docks in Liverpool, and this was called the May Blitz. We could hear everything in Ormskirk during night duty. We used to say: "Liverpool are getting it bad."

Then the morning after we would have an influx of civilians whose houses had almost fallen down on top of them. A few more days of that and the port would have been closed; dark days indeed and never to be forgotten.

Rationing of food started in 1941 which made eveything very difficult for housewives, but most of them managed very well. The ones with families were the worst hit. We had tinned spam (ham and port, I think) dried egg, which made nice omelettes and vinegar in cakes instead of egg. If the dried egg didn't go round, there were ways and means and the British housewife was not beaten.

Harold and I became officially engaged that Christmas. He send a formal letter to my father asking permission and by that time he had been moved from Egypt to the Western Desert.

By that time my parents had moved to Southport and a vacancy occurred at the Promenade Hospital, Southport. I applied for it and was successful. This was a good move and I was able to live at home, much to my mother's delight. Before I left Ormskirk, I was in the cinema there (now a supermarket) and one evening a bomb was dropped nearby. All the lights went out and we had to stay there until the 鈥渁ll clear鈥� sounded. This was another example of the German鈥檚 hurrying back to base and dropping their bombs anywhere. I made a new lot of friends in Southport and so started another happy time in my life. On the wards we always had "music while you work" on the wireless, so that made everyone more cheerful.

All this time the war was dragging on and the allies fighting hard against Rommel in the Western Desert led by Field Marshall Montgomery, affectionately known as Monty, at El Alamein. We were very heartened by Winston Churchill's speeches on the news. "We will fight them in the streets and fields, on the seas and oceans, on the landing grounds and in the air. We will defend our land, whatever it costs, we will never surrender."

The Jews in Germany suffered unmercifully and thousands were sent to the gas chambers. This holocaust is still talked about today more than 50 years on.

Around about this time, Harold was moved from the Western Desert to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. The Germans tried to get to the Suez Canal, which would have been a great advantage to them, but they were defeated at Tolbrouk. Germany invaded Russia in 1941, so that took some of the pressure from the Brits. In December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. This was a big shock to the Yanks, but it was a turning point in the war. Britain and America declared war on the Japs and the Americans became our allies.

The war with severe fighting and hevy losses continued all through 1942 while British people made the best of it and the housewives in particular became very inventive with th ecooking, etc, and were thankful for small mercies, for instance if the fish shop had a small quantity of fish or the greengrocers had a delivery of fruit; children at that time had never seen bananas.

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