大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from CSV Solent on behalf of Frederick Cook and has been added to the site with his permission. Frederick Cook fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was born in 1927 and lived in Funtley, Hamshire.

I remember that my friend Lionel and I were appointed to be messengers for the Civil Defence as Mr Bennet, our Headmaster, had asked for volunteers. We were given special equipment: black helmets with a big white M on the front and an arm band with M for messenger on it. Our job was to cycle, during a raid, to take messages from one Civil Defebce post to another but luckily we and our bikes were never called upon to perform this task, although we happily did a few practice runs.

In our village pub, the Miners Arms, we heard the tale of the Polish airman who bailed out over our village. As in "Ladies in Lavender", our village thought he spoke as a German. He was therefore tied up in the only secure place the village could think of - the telephone box. This was roped up securely and all were delighted until they realised that there was no other public telephone in the village so that the authorities could not be contacted. Luckily, Jimmy Morris, the manager of the local brickyard, who had one of the few private telephones in the village, was able to help. When the army and the police arrived, they ascertained that he was indeed Polish and an ally. so that he was carried along, shoulder high to the Miners Arms, where all the men involved finished up very, very merry; as my father told me.

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