大象传媒

I was with Mum and Dad listening to the wireless when the Prime Minister broadcast that England was at war with Germany. I was seven years old and went to Norwich Road School. Soon after the war was announced we were all issued with gas masks at school, we kept them in a cardboard box with a cord strap to hang over your neck or shoulder.
About a year later we lost the green playing field at school, air-raid shelters were built. Later when England was being attacked by German bombers, they flew over Norfolk, so then sirens sounded and we had to go down into the shelters. It was pitch black in there and we were squeezed together on benches. There was a different alarm for when the planes departed.
My two elder brothers managed to get a large map of France and Germany, they fixed it to a wall in the bedroom and each day moved the pin flags to where the German front was and the English front.
Glued sticky back paper was issued out to householders. They put strips across the windows, this was in case of a bomb blast, to stop the glass from shattering.
My dad grew vegetables in the back garden. During dark nights you needed a torch light to get about, as there were no street lights.
Thetford had a false aerodrome on the outskirts of town, to fool the Germans into bombing it instead of the real ones.
When I was 14 I started work at the Co-op store, grocery and provisions. Ration books would be handed over by the customer to be marked and have the coupons cut out. Food was very scarce as surplies by sea were being torpedoed and bombed.
I remember the Americans with their crisps and chewing-gum.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.