大象传媒

There was a great build up to D-Day in Worthing. Obviously at the time we did not know what was going to happen. The town was like one big barracks with a mass of different nationalities including Canadians, Americans and there were also Russian prisoners of war. It felt like the whole town had been taken over. There was very little civilian traffic and there were restrictions on travel. The roads were lined with tanks.

As D-Day approached then suddenly everyone left. There was talk of an invasion, but we didn鈥檛 know what was going to happen.

During night 5th/6th June, we were both awoken by the sound of aircraft crossing the town. We couldn鈥檛 see anything as everything was blacked out, but they were flying low at less than 10 000 feet. You knew that something was about to happen.

The following day at school it was announced that the invasion had begun. Soon after D-Day the Doodlebugs began to fall on Worthing. You could actually see them as they came in quite low. This was very frightening.

As teenagers other memories included it being quite an exciting time with opportunities to go to the local dances. The radio was an important medium as it kept you informed as did the news reels at the cinema. Although rationing was austere and we had to go without our treats we never went hungry.

Other local memories include remembering a plane coming down in Honeysuckle Lane (West Worthing) in 1940. In 1941 a Heinkel 111 crashed in to Lyndhurst Road (East Worthing) killing the Canadians that lived there.

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