大象传媒

Thi story has been added to The People's War Website by CSV Volunteer Ann Toomey on behalf of the author Dale Humphries, who understands the site's terms and conditions.

I remember the day when War was declared between us and Germany. My sister and I were playing in the garden, when dad called us in. I noticed that my mother had been crying and looked very concerned. It was then that my father told us that we were at War.

Dad said that we were not to worry and that he would arrange for us to go and live in the country, and so within a few days my sister and I found ourselves boarding a train heading for the West Country.

Mother had tied labels to our jackets and off we went into the great unknown, from London to a little village called Wedmoor in Somerset. I remember being taken up a very steep hill which was called Mutton Lane to a farm owned by Mr. Harding.

Doreen and I were very sad as we had never been away from home before, and a few tears were shed. The farmer and his wife treated us with much kindness but we still wanted to go home.

After two weeks my mother and my Auntie Nellie came to see us and we begged them to take us back, which they did. When we arrived home there were men in the garden building our Anderson Shelter.

Shortly after the completion of the shelter we witnessed our first air raid. My father called me to the entrance and told me to look up at the sky and to my amazement I saw wave after wave of German bombers flying above us. The Ack Ack guns opened up fire and a handful of Spitfires went up to meet them, although they were out numbered. They shot down a number of the bombers before they were shot down themselves.

The night raids were unbelievable, as you could see the flashing of our guns and when they found their target the search lights would follow them down until they crashed. They also followed the descent of any parachutists who had escaped from their burning planes, this included our own Pilots as well as the Nazis bomber crews.

After a raid my friends and I used to go out looking for shrapnel and one day I found in the Park an unexploded incendiary bomb complete with it's fins and proudly took it home to my father who immediately dumped it into the water barrel at the bottom of the garden. He then informed the A.R.P. who came and took the bomb away.

If the bombs had destroyed any buildings in our area we would go and help, shifting brick by brick in the hope that if the building had been occupied we may in some way help to save lives.

The firemen gave me a pair of gloves to protect my hands because they were sore, and so it went on day after day, night after night.

In the first two years we grew up quickly realising that this was not Cowboys and Indians and not an adventure, we were fighting for our lives and very existence, and then it happened, America entered the War.

My first encounter with a G.I. was a Sargeant in the USAAF. It was then that we learn't the saying "GOT ANY GUM CHUM" and most of them would give us a whole packet. I had my first taste of a Babe Ruth and a Hershy Bar. They used to bring us "K" rations and if you don't know what they are I'll explain - It was a brown box completely sealed in wax and it was full of great things to eat, and my favorite was powdered eggs, and I got quite a taste for them.

My father, an ex-Cavalry man, tried to enlist but they turned him down because his right leg was so badly crushed due to a horse rolling on him in the First World War, and he had to wear leg irons for the remainder of his life. He was sent away to do special work which he was not allowed to discuss with us and after a few weeks he sent for us and we found ourselves back in the country living in an old cottage with oil lamps for light and a well for our water supply.

Not far away was the American Air Base and we would watch as they flew in the Bl7 Bombers known as the Flying Fortress.

When they started their raids on Germany we could see them take off and we knew where they were going as the Americans did the daylight bombing whilst the RAF did the night time bombing.

I was so surprised at the generosity of these young bomber crews, and at Christmas they would come to the houses with food parcels and cigarettes. They threw parties for all the children and they treated us beautifully.

I could never understand why certain people didn't like them. I used to get mad when I heard several people say that they were "OVERPAID, OVERSEXED AND OVER HERE". I wonder where we'd be now if they had stayed on their side of the pond and left us to it?

I could go on and on, but you only wanted a brief outline of my experiences in London etc. during the Second World War.

One thing I'll always remember was going back to London with my family as my father had been sent back there, it was then that I experienced my first injury.

I was about fourteen now and Adolf's new secret weapon had arrived. Some people called it the Doodle Bug or Buzz Bomb, but the thing about the Doodle Bug was you could hear it coming and you could see it clearly. When it's engine cut out the thing would drop like a stone and God help anyone below.

The next thing we had to worry about was Hitler's V2 Rocket, this you didn't see or hear, it just killed you. One of these landed near me as I was walking down the street and the explosion lifted me off the ground and I landed about twenty feet away. All I had in the way of injuries were cuts and bruises.

After the War I went back to my childhood haunts and called on one of my old school friends, during our conversation I asked about his brothers who were in the Battle of Britain. Two were Spitfire pilots, one was a Hurricane pilot and one in Bomber Command. I was so sorry to hear that they had all been killed in Action.

I will end now as the memories of all this has brought a lump to my throat and I am feeling rather sad.

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