大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Alison Lear on behalf of Geoffrey Davey. The story has been added to the site with his permission. And Geoffrey Davey fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

I was born in Tiverton where my pop was a manager of a fishmongers. The family moved to Seaford in East Sussex where pop became a sargeant in the Royal Sussex Regiment at Newhaven harbour.

In 1941 I was 11 years old. One day I was standing on the veranda of my pop's new fish shop when I saw a German Dormier twin engine aircraft flying over the seafront, really low. He must only have been 100 feet in the air, skimming the rooftops. I was too young to be scared, I didn't know what war meant at that age.

On another occasion I remember a bomb dropped on my pop's allottment, destroying all his produce. He said a few swear words that I better not repeat!

Shortly after this my older brother and I were evacuated by steam engine to Bedford complete with gas mask, label and luggage along with 300 other children. When we arrived I was separated from my brother for the whole 2 years of the evacuation. It was surprising we were sent to Bedford because there was a lot of industry there.

When we were reunited with the family we returned to Tiverton because my pop was too old to stay in the regular army. He joined the Home Guard in Tiverton and there is a photograph of him in the local museum. He was in the 4th Battalion of the Home Guard.

My older sister joined the Land Army and she wore an armband with the letters WLA inscribed on it. One American soldier stationed near Tiverton quipped " do the letters stand for 'We Like Americans?'" !

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