大象传媒

This story appears courtesy of and with thanks to The Liverpool Diocesan Care and Repair Association and James Taylor.

The eldest of my three younger brothers went bang into the Air-Force at the outbreak of the war, which was in the September, when he was supposed to start his career and having had this experience, he qualified as a pilot. We lost him in the Battle of Britain, over his own country, before the end of 1939. Bob the next boy, took medicine and he qualified the next year. You see he was so near to taking his degree, he was allowed to stay on, or else they would have been called up. Once they took their degree they usually went right into the military services, choosing which one they wanted then. His first job was assistant ship鈥檚 doctors, and he was torpedoed on his very first trip. Harry the baby was the apple of my eye and he had a lovely nature, like my little mother.
He was missing, he鈥檇 joined up before the other two, much to their disgust. He joined the Liverpool Royal Engineers, all the boys who could drive were put through a Heavy Goods driving test. They were driving the convoys to the Maginot line and of course they were being fired on, they were trying to prevent them from getting through. They were eventually disbanded, and he was tapped on to the famous 51st Highland Division. He was thrilled because he adored my husband who was a Scot. He wrote home to tell my husband that he was now a member of the famous 51st.
By the end of the war the three boys had been killed, I鈥檇 gone up in smoke, I was blitzed. Everything I had worked for had collapsed around me. After the war all I had left was a step ladder, and I remember sitting on the bottom rung, and my husband said 鈥淭his is where we give up.鈥� I said 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just what Hitler meant to do to us, and he鈥檚 not going to do it.鈥�

鈥楾his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

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