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This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by M. Absell from Littlehampton Learning Shop and has been added to the website on behalf of John Moore with his/her permission and they fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions鈥�

WAR MEMORIES IN LITTLEHAMPTON, SUSSEX

I was 4 years old, and in hospital the day the war started. Then in March 1941 at the age of 5 my sister and I were evacuated to Rainworth in Nottingham, and we were away from home for about a year. (One thing
that still puzzles me is that when the main evacuation took place in September 1939, the London children were sent down to Littlehampton
and the South, while as I have mentioned we were sent north to Nottingham?)
At Rainworth, my sister and I were taken to the village hall, where people came along to choose which children they wanted to take in to their homes. In some cases they were reluctant to take two children, which mean some families could be split up. But my sister and I were lucky to be taken together. I remember crying when I got to the house; I guess I just wanted to go home to my Mum and Dad and I think I stuck to my sister like glue here! We only stayed at this billet for about a week, but I remember that the family was not very hospitable to us. We were always
getting told off and had sleep six to a bed. It was noticed that we were unhappy here and so it was arranged for us to be moved.
Our next family was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Timson who had two daughters, and turned out to be very nice. Mr. Timpson, like most of the men of the village, worked in the local coal mine. There were coalmines all around us. We were well cared for here, although they were very strict.
When we got home the war was well under way. At our house in Hill Road, my dad had made up a make shift shelter under the stairs, where we (now 3 children) slept, as this was thought to be the safest place to be if we were bombed. Upstairs was 鈥榦ut of bounds鈥�! Later on we had a steel (Morrison) table shelter fitted in our living room to sleep in. We found these o.k. but if you didn鈥檛 duck low enough you ended up with a nice bump on the head!
Our school, known as Elm Grove, had all the windows blacked out and taped, and air raid shelters around the playground that could hold about two classes. On hearing the sirens, we made our way to these shelters.
(When the war ended, we were given the task of scraping off all the black paint and tape from the windows,)
The end houses in our road had large concrete blocks built in to their gardens. They were great for playing on, until the occupiers told us off. In the roads between the houses there were smaller concrete blocks that were laid along the footpath. I think these concrete blocks were there to help repel tanks.
Adjoining our road was a large field in which there was a large concrete gun pit and also two pom pom guns and of course an army camp which being children we couldn鈥檛 keep away from! There was also a very large, deep dug out across the field, which I believe was a tank trap. However, with hindsight, I don鈥檛 recall the guns in this field being used in anger.
In the town all the large houses and all the houses along the sea front were taken over by the American and Canadian soldiers. All this was exiting for us kids, as we could get some of their chocolates and chewing gum!
Around the river and along the beach was out of bounds to us, and there was barbed wire all around keeping us out, as well as guns and other equipment along the beach and around the common.
Litttlehampton did have a few air raids. I can remember two of these.
In one raid, bombs were dropped on a row of cottages near the river in Pier Road, killing all the occupants, including some of my school friends.
The other was the biggest raid we had, which was on the Royal Navy Air Station at Ford H.M.S. Perigrine on August 18th 1940. It was a Sunday dinnertime when the siren went off, so we had to scramble into our shelter under the stairs. While the bombs were dropping and making our house shudder, my dad was holding a big board up to the window in case the glass came in. It was quite scary at the time. I think that was the closest our house came to being bombed.
In another incident, my friend Maurice and I were playing in a field when two planes came over with their guns firing away, when one plane, I guess the German, dropped a bomb and we both dived for cover under a hedge. It fell on a house in nearby East Street. When we crawled out from under the hedge we saw sheets of music flying around鈥 guess from the blast on the house so close to us! Our mums, who had been out looking for us, gave us a good telling off we got home, despite their obvious relief that we were safe.
Sometimes during the day, we used to watch the squadrons of planes going over, and then at night when we were under our shelter we would hear the drones of planes. Then Mum and Dad would say 鈥� I wonder if they were ours or Germans?鈥� then wait to hear if the siren would go.
We had a number of planes that came down in the fields around Littlehampton, so we had to go and see what they were, if we could get near them. I can remember seeing one 鈥楧oodlebug鈥� going over our town. They had a distinctive sound, which was easily recognized. I supposed it was heading for London, as we never had any land around us here.
I also remember that we were warned about one particular bomb. It was like a tin can with little 鈥榳ings鈥� coming off it. These were quite often discovered in bushes, and if you were to pick them up, they would go off.
I think we were lucky in Littlehampton, as we came off quite lightly from the bombing compared to the big cities.
When the war finally ended, we had a big VE DAY street party.

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