大象传媒

This story has been added to the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV volunteer Kate Langdon on behalf of the author Joan Whittaker, who understands the terms and conditions.

I was just 13 and a half when war broke out on 3rd September 1939. I can remember my brother and I sitting with dad and mum waiting for an important announcement on the radio. Then it came - war was declared. My brother was just 16 at the time but I can remember my mother crying as she knew that if the war went on for any length of time he would be called to the forces.

When he was 18 he enlisted in the Grenadier Guards and was with them for the duration of the war. My dad was past the age of being 'called up' but he did work in a munitions factory and was an Air Raid Warden, also a plane spotter. He had a book with silhouettes of various aircraft.

Although I was quite young I was kept busy helping the war effort in small ways. First of all to help my mother I spent hours each week queuing for various bits of food to help out the rations: Charnon's Bakery of Redruth for any heavy cake that was available at times, then Bartles Shop for any hogs pudding to help out the meat ration, next the Pork Shop for any pork bones. If we were fortunate to get any my mother would scrape off any pork to make pasties and make broth with the bones. Mum also got used to mixing butter and margarine together with milk to make the butter go much further. Dad was good at making scrambled egg with the dried egg powder we had instead of fresh eggs.

I also collected a penny a week from people who lived in St Day Road and were willing to give to the Red Cross Fund. Everthing was entered into a book and after the war I had a certificate from the late Duke of Gloucester thanking me for taking part.

As I got a little older I became a Messenger Girl in the Civil Defence. We wore a navy tunic, trousers and beret and were trained to cycle around Redruth with our gas masks on. This was in case the roads were ever blocked and cars could not get through, then we could deliver any important messages from one place to another. While I was a messenger I also on occasions helped the WVS to take evacuees around. I was so young myself I can remember when we went up East End - Mount Ambrose and Scorrier areas - the women were out by their gates, apons on, arms folded, wondering who they would have. One pointed at me and said, "She doesn't look a bad little thing!"

Also while I was a Messenger Girl I met my husband to be. At the time he was in a special unit of the Home Guard. These young men were being trained to be ready in case of an invasion around the Cornish Coast.

One Sunday morning my father came home from a walk with a friend and wanted to know what sort of a fellow I was going around with. It seems that my boyfriend and others of this special unit were trying out various explosives. This was somewhere off Sandy Lane where my father had gone for a walk, apparently before the warning signs had been up about the possible explosions. They tested these out on big rocks and boulders and on my father's return walk the rocks were blown up very close to him and his friend. He said his hair really stood on end. Fortunately no damage was done, other than the fright, so all was forgiven. Some time later my boyfriend was called to the armed forces and spent the rest of the war and a little longer in the Royal Signals until he was demobbed in 1947.

My most vivid memory of the war was when Redruth Station was bombed. My mother was ill at the time so dad and I had to stay with her. We were living at Raymond Road and were at the front door watching the place being lit up and all the bombs exploding. After things went quiet for a while dad said there were 8 thuds but only 7 explosions and said he had better go into town to report it to someone in authority.

After walking over loads of broken glass and roof tiles, etc. he eventually found a policeman and told him the story. The policeman didn't think it possible that anyone could say that with so much going on, so dad came back home. The next day East End School was evactuated because of an unexploded bomb!

Another nasty incident was one Sunday morning about 12 o'clock, when we were coming out of Redruth Wesley Chapel. An aeroplane was overhead and my friend looked up and said, "Look, there's a cross on the wings it must be a hospital plane." Of course it wasn't. They were swastikas. Right after that we heard machine gun fire and some people walking along Falmouth Road were injured. We were given to understand that the German plane was eventually shot down into the sea off the coast beyond Penzance.

As I got a little older I registered on two occasions but I was just too young to be called to the Armed Forces.

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