大象传媒

This story has been added to the People's War website by Micheline Stevens on behalf of Joan Leslie with her permission. Joan fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

In the summer of 1940, my sister and I worked in the Gosport Food Office which was located in my old school 鈥� High Street, Gosport. I was 20 and my sister was 15. Our nearest air raid shelter was across the road in Walpole Park 鈥� about 5 minutes run away. We were told that whenever the air raid siren sounded we must go and take refuge in the shelter. We had lived through the 鈥減honey war鈥� and had experienced many false alarms so we girls in the Food Office could not wait for the siren to go so we could run across to the park, sit outside the shelter on a bench, chatter, laugh and hope that the all clear wouldn鈥檛 sound too soon.

Our boss didn鈥檛 approve of this enforced idleness at the expense of the tax payer and decided we must take some work with us. One of our jobs was to count the coupons cut out of customer鈥檚 ration books by shopkeepers who sent them to us in return for a permit to replenish his stocks. So we took boxes full of coupons to count while we were in the 鈥榮helter鈥� and woe betide anyone who spilled them for when this happened 鈥� and it sometimes did 鈥� we had to stay behind after work to count them.

On one particular day we were enjoying the sunshine in the park when, to our consternation, we saw in the distant sky wave after wave of aircraft approaching. We all rushed for the shelter and hardly had we got inside before all hell broke loose. There were horrendous thuds and explosions and then a terrifying moment as a bomb dropped outside the end of our shelter. Part of the structure caved in, the ventilator at the top was blown off and we were showered with earth and stones. At one point someone suggested that the dust filling the shelter was gas which really frightened my sister as she had left her gas mask 鈥� which we were meant to carry with us at all times 鈥� back in the office.

Miraculously no-one was seriously hurt but this time we prayed for the 鈥渁ll clear鈥� to come quickly. Eventually it did and we emerged dirty, dusty and dishevelled, but I鈥檓 glad to say, still with boxed of unspilled coupons!

A photograph and report of the event appeared in the Portsmouth Evening News and can no doubt be found in their archives. From then on Gosport would be the target for many air raids day and night. We suffered many near misses 鈥� but none as close as this one.

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