大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Justine Warwick on behalf of Edwin Russell Richardson and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

I was 14 when the war broke out in 1939. I lived at Tidworth, a big military base. My father served in the First World War, on the reserve between the two wars, and was called up as a reservist in June 1939 stationed in France with the expeditionary force. I have one brother 5 years older than me who was called up into the army. My mother stayed at home for a while and was in the WVS. My father came out of Dunkirk a fortnight after the evacuation, but he was so badly affected by it that he had to go to hospital. My mother was so worried about the base being bombed that she said to me 鈥淚 think you had better go and live with your grandmother in Southampton鈥�. And so did - and we were bombed there instead! One night the bombs hit both houses either side of us, leaving just my grandmothers house standing. I joined the ATC and did fire watching in Southampton, and when I was 17 in 1943 I joined the RAF. After training as a Rear Air Gunner on Lancasters, I served with 467 squadron of the Royal Australian Air force 鈥� our pilot was Australian. I went on a number of raids and we were all right 鈥� we got through. There was plenty of anti-aircraft fire and we were attacked by one of the first German Jet aircraft over Hamburg. But I got through all that and the war ended in this country. With us being on an Australian squadron the Australian government wanted all crews back as Darwin was still being bombed. So the squadron was disbanded. Most of the English aircrew however were re mustered and I was sent out to the Far East and found myself in Singapore by Christmas 1945. I eventually came home in April 1947 and was discharged. My brother came back in early 1946. My father was discharged in 1941 and came back to work in the ordinance depot. And it wasn鈥檛 until 1947 that we all got together again.

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