大象传媒

Being born in May 39, my memories of war are very patchy but little details stick out. My Mother and I were evacuated to live with her eldest sister and family in St Arvans in 1940. My Father remained at home in Newhaven and was in the Observer Corps at the Fort there. My Mother and I shared a room with another of her sisters, then Uncle George and Auntie Winnie whose house it was had another bedroom, and my cousin Joan had a little room. There was also a bed in the attic apparently for a soldier named Mick who was billeted with the family. Must have been a crush because the cottage and its neighbour have since been converted to one house which does not look over-large! I have a hazy memory of soldiers marching through the village on one occasion playing bagpipes and Mum said I burst into tears at the sound and the band stopped playing as they passed us. My Mother worked part time at a local farm and I remember being allowed to turn the handle on a little butter churn. I think we were very lucky to be pretty well away from the bombing - Newport Docks probably being the nearest target. At the end of the War we returned home to Newhaven and I do remember one occasion when sirens went and Mum, Dad and I went into the cupboard under the stairs and Dad read me stories - quite an exciting adventure! However, soon after our return home we had an event which actually was not because of hostile action but obviously made people afraid that War had not finally ended because during a severe storm at night, a ship carrying cordite explosive was blown into the harbour and exploded. This caused massive damage throughout the Town and even as far afield as Lewes where my Grandmother lived. There was hardly a window left in the whole area and all our windows blew in except my bedroom window which blew outwards leaving me sleeping soundly and my parents terrified to look into the room because there had been no yells! My Father checked on neighbours and brought one elderly lady back with him for a cup of tea, I remember that Dad said she was only worried about finding her false teeth! We had the house boarded up for ages - our front door had blown half way up the staircase but remarkably in the whole event I believe only two people were killed and one of those was on the quayside at the time. I imagine this event was very similar to people's experiences of being bombed.

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