大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Sue Sutton on behalf of Geoffrey Vague the author, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was about 13 and served as an army cadet in Constantine. We were messagers during exercises. Always prepared to go and mecessary travelling by bike. My father Frank Vague was an ARP Warden based in the Vicarage. There were seven ARP Wardens, one was the vicar who was a bachelor the Rev Graves, he was a missionary in the Soloman Islands.

Father was a farmer (as well as ARP), it was a bit grim because we were 'under controls'. Each farm had to grow certain percentages in corn and potatoes whether the land was suitable or not. Hampered with the blackouts we had to be careful not to open the door from the cowsheds if a light was showing.

I remember seeing the aircraft which bombed Lister Street in Falmouth. It was on Sunday afternoon, a French plane with red, white and blue circles flew over our farm only a few hundred feet above us. Five minutes later we heard the explosion. It made me realise the war was definitely on. My first experience of war.

At Falmouth Grammer School there were air raid shelters in the playground off Tregenver Road. We used them half a dosen times. We'd just drop our pencils and run out. We didn't take it all that seriously. There weren't any casualties. We had a barrage balloon in the palying field which was brought down for checking and put back by RAF crews. These balloons were dotted about all over Falmouth to protect the docks and the oil storage tanks at Swanvale. There were about twenty of them.

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