大象传媒

At 11.45 am. on Sunday 3rd September 1939 Mr. Chamberlain, the Prime Minster, declared to the nation on the B.B.C. radio we were at war with Germany.

Some children were evacuated but our mother thought we might be separated so we stayed at home.

In the summer of 1940 Germany decided to bomb London and other important cities and thus invade Britain and take control. This period became knoown as the famous "Battle of Britain". German planes would fly over London and surrounding cities to drop bombs -hour after hour. Our planes would then take off and try and shoot them down. When the planes were chasing one another it bacame known as a "dog fight" and the planes left in the beautiful blue sky white vapour trials, which drifted into the most wonderful shapes.

I can vividly remember one such Saturday. The air-raid warning had gone earlier in day and with my two brothers we were in the garden air-raid shelter my mother going to the house to bring back food and drink. Suddenly there was a "dog-fight2 in the sky that meant Germany and English planes were trying to shoot one another down. My brothers were standing on top of the shelter shouting and waving their arms with Mum screaming from the house for them to get back inside the shellter. I remained half in and half out ofthe shelter shouting at them to come back inside. It seemed very exciting for us children watching but those pilots were all very brave men and possibly quite young.

Following the period of bombing came the "rockets". The first type was in the shape of a bomb with fire coming out the rear nd it made a sound buzzing sound- thus called the "doodle-bug". These were fired from sites in Germany and other occupied countries controlled by the Germains. Once you heard the noise and it suddenly cesed yo had a terrible fear it was going to land on your house. We used to sit with our fingers crossed lookingat each other and hoping it would keep going. The time between the noise stopping and the actual explosion seemed ages and yo sighed with relief although you knew some other house and family had been hit.

Following that type of bomb came the V.11's. These rockets were alsoterrible becase they made no sound until they hit the ground ana exploded. One Sunday afternoon a V.11 dropped just over the wall at the bottom of our garden. I can rebber seeing roof tiles of the house just lift p and slide down and glass windows shooting out with the crtains blowing behind Because it landed in a field nobody was hurt.There was a further type of bomb called a "lanmine" but this was ttached to a parachute and just floated down silently. One did fall in the next block of houses but one to my house and killed quite a few people. I went to look at the site - just a huge hole and rubble.

The war against Germany ended in 1945 and I was 12 years old. There were great celebrations with lots of street parties.

This story was submitted to the "People's War site by a volunteer from the B.B.C.Radio Suffolk.on behalf of Beryl Green (nee Faulkener) and has been added to the site withher permission. Beryl Green fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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