大象传媒

In 1939 I was a 12-year old girl in my first year at Fitzmaurice Grammar School. The seriousness of the political situation was not really apparent to me until June 1939, when I was on holiday in Devon with my parents and I heard them discussing it with friends. From then on the rumours of war became a frightening reality on 3 September, also this was to be our last holiday in Devon, the South coast beach being protected by rolls of barbed wire and anti-tank traps.

At first it all seemed rather unreal. We were issued with gas masks and taught how to use them; we were also all given Identity Cards. My father, aged 40, became an Air Raid Warden and my mother had to get used to shopping with Ration Books. Grandfather did his bit by digging up the flowerbeds and planting extra vegetables.

Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, a country town of approximately 5000 population was not considered to be a prime target so designated spots were listed to be Air Raid Shelters such as the cellars of a large town house and the old Bath stone quarries being used to grow mushrooms. People in houses were advised to shelter under the stairs and those in bungalows to get under the kitchen table. In our bungalow this was difficult as my family consisted of 3 adults and 1 teenager and I always stayed in bed! At school we were all given our 鈥榮tations鈥� on the ground floor and the sirens provided a break in lessons, which was not welcomed by the staff.

The main industry in the town was the Spencer Moulton factory sited in the former weaving mills and making rubber products, mainly couplings and pressings for the railways but also tennis balls. The village of Westwood was sited on top of the hill on the other side of the valley where there were entrances to the other old Bath stone quarries. One quarry was put to use as an underground factory when the Enfield Cycle Company moved from Redditch and changed to making Gun Predictors. Another quarry was used to store treasures from the British Museum. Brick bungalows built by Irish labourers for the Ministry of Works, were provided to house all the workers from the Midlands.

Though Bradford-on-Avon was not an obvious target for bombers, apart from the relatively small factory it had a canal, river and railway all of which ran parallel all the way to Bath, the railway being the main GWR line from Bristol and Bath to London and the South and West Country. However we were on the flight path of bombers to South Wales, Bristol and the Midlands so we always knew where there were air raids on these places and also the raids on Bath were memorable being only 6 miles away. We always recognised the sound of the Heinkel bombers as the engines had a distinctive throbbing sound. In 1941 there was a dog fight over the town between one of our fighters and a German plane. I don鈥檛 think the siren had sounded as my class was on its way to the school playing fields. We watched in fascination quite oblivious to the danger of the spent cartridges falling around. Quite exciting!

In 1942/43 an escaping bomber off-loaded its bombs over the town. Most fell harmlessly on fields but one struck the canal bank causing that section of the canal to empty into the river, which was on a lower level. Many fish were left stranded in the connecting field and were helped into the river by local people.

I joined a Girls Club set up by a local Headmistress. Often we were involved in money raising activities for 鈥淲ar Weapons Week鈥� or 鈥淏uy a Spitfire鈥�. Once we took part in a display of fitness and dancing in the town park. Our club also adopted a Norwegian Submarine and in spite of language difficulties we corresponded with the submariners and were allocated wool to knit gloves and seaboot stockings etc for them. Twice when on leave they visited the town and were entertained at our Club. After the war a grateful King Haakon wrote each girl a letter and we each had a copy of his book 鈥淎ll for Norway鈥�, which I still have.

In 1942 the Americans came, being stationed in nearby Trowbridge. They attended the weekly dances in the Town Hall and were grateful to be invited to people鈥檚 homes. My family corresponded with two of them and their families even after the war. When the black Americans arrived later, they also began to come to the local dances. Many girls danced with them finding them very courteous but this upset the white Americans and fights broke out between them. Thereafter they had to be segregated and there were separate dances held.

One sad episode in 1944 was when a Canadian plane got into difficulties and crashed. The pilot managed to put it down in a field, near Priory Close not far from houses and the crew bailed out but many crew were injured and one died landing in a tree.

When VE Day came in May 1945 celebrations in the town were somewhat low key as though peace had come, many still had relatives still involved in the Far East war and it wasn鈥檛 until VJ Day in August that we really celebrated, always remembering those who would never return.

On VJ Day I was on holiday in Paignton with three girlfriends from school and we danced on Preston Green on the front with many Canadian soldiers. It was wonderful to hear the Church Bells again too as during the war they would have been rung only to signal an invasion.

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