大象传媒

I was 5 陆 at outbreak of war and living in Acton, West London. We had an Anderson air raid shelter at the end of the garden-half of which was underground. It was made of strong corrugated iron and largely covered by earth. It was damp and dingy-so in fact at night particularly during the Blitz, we spent our nights in the basement of a laundry opposite. We boys usually took our 鈥渇ag鈥� (cigarette) cards which came in all cigarette packets and played with them. It was great fun at first!

Men with acetylene torches came and took away all iron railings from peoples front gardens to use in the war effort. (Later we learned that much of this was not of much use-but was a good propaganda exercise) Big bins were left in the street for 鈥淧ig Swill鈥�-waste food to give to pigs.

When out of the house we always had to carry our gas masks. They were in a cardboard box and we carried them with a string round our necks. Whilst there we were bombed-it was at the end of the street and we lived in the middle. It was a 500 pound high explosive bomb which were common then. All our windows were broken-and I remember thinking perhaps a German would come in and take us away! We collected bits of shells and bombs (鈥渟hrapnel鈥�) in old cocoa tins.

During the Blitz we were in the air raid shelter every night. About 1943 we moved to Chiswick (very near to the present Chiswick flyover) I went to Belmont Junior school
-there was an air raid shelter in the playground. A Department store 鈥淕oodbans鈥� was bombed in the High Street-and soon after the 鈥渂uzz bombs鈥� began. Their proper name was V 1鈥檚-pilotless aircraft. When the engine stopped we use to count to five and soon after we鈥檇 hear an explosion as it hit the ground.

My parents were perhaps rather intimidated by this new weapon, and decided it was time for me to be 鈥渆vacuated鈥�. So one day with case, gas mask and name label a lot of us children ended up on Paddington Station and got on a long steam train. Our destination was secret so that the enemy wouldn鈥檛 target us with their bombs! Even our parents weren鈥檛 told where we were going. I went with a group of about 20/24 from our Borough (then Brentford and Chiswick)-master was Mr Crickmer.

We ended up in South Wales-at a little mining village called Cross Hands, near Llanelli. We had not been allocated to a host family-so we stood round the hall and local adults came in to 鈥渟elect鈥� us! Some checked if our fingernails were clean-and one or two spun me round to see if my neck was clean and clothes tidy. Unfortunately my case had been lost and when I told people they moved quietly on-presumably to someone who might not be such a 鈥渘uisance鈥�. I ended up as the last child in the hall, and the WRVS ladies got me a pair of short trousers about 3 sizes too big!

I stayed with people called Williams-very old but very kind. I ended up in the chapel choir-and so three times on Sundays and twice during the week I was in chapel. The buses all had polished wooden slats (and no cushions) because of miners dirty clothing-and they were very uncomfortable! On the way from school we would watch the village blacksmith shoeing horses. One game was to slide down slag heaps on wooden sledges. We would wait for the engine house man to start the machinery that went right to the top of the heap-and just before it all tipped over its two truck load of slag we would jump off. If you ran to catch the machinery too early the man stopped it and cursed you and tried to chase us away. We ended up as dirty as the miners. There was a snooker table in the village hall and I would spend my meagre pocket money there at lunch times! On Sundays we were given a passage to find in the Bible. I perfected a mathematically sure scheme to ensure I found it by first thing Monday mornings. The penny or twopence reward was probably spent on snooker. (No sweets,
Bananas, oranges etc remember!)

I was in an end terrace house. The loo was a 鈥渢hunder box鈥� at the end of the garden, and the bucket had to be emptied now and again. For night emergencies there was a chamber pot under the bed. My friend John Brind lived in a grand detached house at the top of the hill-it had a putting green on the front lawn.

As part of the War effort we had to collect rosehips from the hedgerows-used for making Vitamin C syrup. From USA I recollect that we were given a bag of marbles
and we often used Dried Whole egg powder which came in waxed boxes bearing the 鈥渟tars and stripes鈥� flag. We would take free rides hanging from the backs of lorries-and quite often taken too far before we could let go called locally 鈥渃utties鈥�. There was some animosity from the local children and the odd fight took place. The Welsh boys would sometimes put stones in their snowballs so we dodged them if possible.

Xmas 1944 I received an apple, book and one or two other small things. I went carol singing on my own and the people were pretty generous. Mrs Williams caught one of her white chickens, and used a bread knife to try and saw its neck on the breadboard!
It got away and clucked wildly with feathers (and blood) flying round the kitchen. This was our special Xmas lunch.

An abiding memory is of the miners coming home with black faces after their shift-and yes, sometimes singing. No pit baths then. I took the 11+ exam in Cross Hands and went back home-now to Hounslow in early 1945.

Towards the end of the war on a holiday in Cornwall I met Gunter, a blond blue eyed German prisoner of war doing farm work. I used to spy on him through the hedgerows to make sure he was behaving himself! By my lights he was too well entertained by the local young ladies!

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