大象传媒

I was born in East Lincolnshire and was living there during the entire period of the war.
I was brought up on a farm with my Parents and one Brother.
I was 16 when the war started, but was not called upon to join any of the recognised forces for females.

I was however obliged to work in a foundry where the work was associated with diesel engines for ships.This, together with working on a farm made life strenuous to say the least.

I got married at 18 and had three children, still living in the same area.

We were surrounded by aerodromes, one in Cranwell which was a training camp for pilots. There was also one at Waddington which housed bombers, and was also the base at Scampton, famous for the Dambusters.

I used to hear the bombers leave at night and return again later. The air force personnel would regularly visit us for tea and sandwiches and a general chat on the war progress.

We lived close to the Humber and noted that the German bombers would come in fairly low, drop their bombs around the aerodromes and make a quick exit.

However, we had a sophisticated army based around the area who would train their searchlight batteries on the enemy aircraft and were quite successful in bringing down more than a few.

We would regularly visit the area where the enemy bombs had dropped to view the damage, which was often quite extensive.

We had learned that the German bombers would approach our aerodromes by the sighting of a Cathedral which was high up on the hills known as The Wolds, but they never touched the Cathdral, they just used it as a landmark to pinpoint their attack strategy.

Ther were two separate POW camps in the area which housed German and Italian prisoners of war.

The prisoners had been captured in various parts of Europe and, in fact, a number of Italians were taken as far away as North Africa .

They would be flown to England and transported by army lorries to their respective camps.

There was also a Polish garrison locally, as in many other parts of the country, they were, of course, our allies.

They were still in our area even after the war had ended and, in fact, they were called upon to dig us out of heavy snowdrifts on one or two occasions.

These were difficult times for everyone, but the tremendous spirit that existed in all parts of the country did give us that sense of purpose, drive and well-being towards survival, all of which led to a satisfactory ending.

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