大象传媒

The year was 1941, I was 15 years old.

I had gone to keep my older sister and her young baby company while her husband was away for the night.... it was quite scary sleeping on your own during the war years. Soon after we had gone to bed, the noise of the sirens woke us up and we could hear the enemy planes dive-bombing overhead. They made a direct hit on the arches and viaduct in Preston Road, Brighton 鈥� directly above where the three of us were sleeping. Tremendous structural damage was done and if my memory serves me right, there were a lot of casualties, but miraculously we three lived to tell the tale. The baby, who was a few months old at the time, is now in his early 60鈥檚.

The most vivid memory for me during the war years was spent at Varndean School for Girls. I was 13 years old when war broke out. If the sirens sounded during lesson time, we had been instructed to collect up all our books and gas masks (which also included emergency rations.. Ovaltine, or Horlicks tablets and drink) to keep us going. On reaching the air-raid shelters (which indidentally we called 鈥淭he Trenches鈥�) we continued where we left off with our lessons. Should we have been taking exams at the time, we then had to proceed up to 鈥淭he Trenches鈥� keeping at arms length from the person in front and behind in perfect silence which had to be sustained until the 鈥淎ll Clear鈥� sounded when we could proceed back to the classroom and continue with our exams. Quite often the sirens would sound several times .

This story has been entered on the site by Elizabeth Legate on behalf of Beryl Chippendale, with her permission. Beryl fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.