大象传媒

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Life on a dummy airfiled in the Thames estuary had been particularly hectic during the summer and autumn of 1940 and we were given a short"rest leave" for us to spend some days with our families.
I set out from Euston for my home town of Manchester and in addition to the expected discomforts of unheated,blacked-out trains with scrim covered windows and erratic timetables,the wailing of air raid sirens made conditions even worse. The further north we travelled ,the worse it got resulting in numerous stops,until we finally crawled into Stockport station where we were told that the centre of Manchester was under heavy attack and that we might have to walk the remaining miles. The all clear sounded shortly afterwards howvever and we finally pulled into Picadilly station after a journey of some ten hours.
The centre of Manchester certainly was ablaze as I picked my way through the debris towards my home in the northern suburbs. I became most concerned when I saw that Central station was alight,as my father worked there.I finally reached home to find my mother extremely worried,nothing had been heard of him,but he arrive shortly after me and although dishevelled and dirty he was not hurt.
The two days over Christmas were unexpectedly quiet,perhaps the Luftwaffe had taken time off to celebrate too and we were able to enjoy family celebrations subject only to the shortages and restrictions of those days.
The leave ended only too soon and the return journey turned out to be repetition of the outward journey and the situation grew steadily worse as we appraoched London. I was met by a vista of burning buildings as I left Euston station, which somenewspapers described as "the second greta fire of London" and was happy to reachthe comparative safety of my tube station.The district line comes above ground shortly after leaving central London however and my journey continued through the East End to the accompaniment of flashes and bangs which might have been bombs or merely the train passing over electrical points. I do recall seeing a large gasometer with two incendiary bombs burning on top of it but we seemed to manage to pass without incident and I finally reached my destination and trudged the remaning few miles back to the dummy airfield
Not the quitest Christmas of my life but one which remains in my memory as the only one spent at home for the rest of the war.

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