大象传媒

During the first year of the war, I worked at the barrage balloon factory in Millbrook Road, Southampton. It had previously been the Pilkington glass factory and the vast empty space inside made it ideal for the job of making barrage balloons. The fins and rudders were made there. We had a wind-up gramophone, which we played in our lunch break.

While working there, the old central railway station was bombed and debris landed in Millbrook Road. We had a 鈥渟potter鈥� who would climb onto the roof of the factory with his whistle when the air raid sirens sounded. We carried on working, and when he thought the planes were getting close, he would blow the whistle and we would run to the shelter.

We were all great mates and at the weekend we would go to the Regent or the Rialto for a night out. Admission price: 9d!

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