大象传媒

I was six years of age when World War 2 broke out. We were living in Dover at that time, my father was in the Navy, so we didn鈥檛 see him unless he was on leave. My grand parents and aunts all lived in Dover too. Eventually, when the my family was asked about my sister and me being evacuated the family decided that we would all stay together. We moved to Exeter thinking that we would be safe there, that was until the Luftwaffe dropped incendiary bombs on the City. The family thought that we would be safer back in Dover. There we suffered shelling and Doodlebugs with some bombing too!
There are a few memorable events that stand out in my memories of the five years of the war. We used to 鈥渃amp out鈥� in the Anderson shelter and sleep in bunks. It was all fun to us youngsters. We were fearless, as most youngsters are. We were awoken to the sound of a low flying aircraft and ran outside the shelter to see a Lancaster bomber obviously in trouble trying to fly back to its airfield. Unfortunately it crashed about two miles up Elms Vale on the hill side. Later that day us boys followed the road up the valley and found the wreckage of the Lancaster Bomber on the side of the hill. How we got there, I don鈥檛 know, but I found myself in front of two machine guns jutting out of a turret, and looking down in the wreckage saw what could only have been human tissue. (The bodies of the injured and dead had already been removed). It was not long before we had to scarper, as we were chased away by soldiers guarding the site.
Another incident I remember was one night in winter, it had been snowing heavily and the hills were covered in a blanket of snow. My sister and I were called from our beds to witness a scene I have never seen before or after. A German aircraft had shot down a Barrage Balloon and it was alight casting a pink glow on the snow. It was a beautiful sight in the midst of war.
It must have been after the D Day invasion of Normandy that Dover Harbour was full of supply ships. The Americans were running landing craft laden with supplies out to the ships from a special ramp built on the beach. We boys managed to persuade the Pilots of these landing craft to take us out with them, and we had a ride round the harbour.

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