大象传媒

September the 3rd 1939,how I still remember that morning, I was 4 at the time and I was playing with my younger sister, when my dad shouted quite and Mr Chamberlain came on the wireless,telling us that we were at war with Germany,

My dad worked at Vickers Supermarine at Woolston, building the Spitfire. We lived in Sholing,which was just down the road from Woolston.

1940 I remember starting school at Sholing primary school and a girl named June use to take me, then oneday I think it was whitson we were told there will be no more school, when we went out to get on the school bus home I remember seeing a lot of navy wagons outside with alot of sailors waiting to move into the school.

I was evacuated to Bournmouth with school mates, the only thing I remember was the day my mother came to collect me and the lady who took me in had bought me a big fire engine.

Then I remember the day ships coming up the Solant with troops on the decks they were from Dunkirk,then sometime after we watch the start of the Battle of Britain over to the east and high in the sky. By this time Dad had become a Air Raid Warden, he took use thats Mum my sister and me to show use his area and without warning came Me109 with Me110 from over the Isle Of White and up the Solant and started bombng the dock area and Supermarine factory. But a lot of Woolston got hit,they came day after day,Then they started bombing at night, we had to sleep in the shelter, my dad had put up a shelf up for me and my sister to sleep on,and the times I was put back in bed after being shackened by the out of bed by the ground shacking as the bombs go off in the town and the docks. One night they bombed a warehouse on the docks and this had all fats ond meats in it, this place burnt for two to three weeks, channels were dug to let the burning fats flow into the river.One day after my dad had been on A.R.P. duty he was asleep in bed when the sirens went off, me a 5 year old, grabbed his police whistle, and went around the block he had to go round when the sirens went off, I had nearly done the round when he caught up with me, DONT DO THAT AGAIN he told me when we got to the shelter. fauls alarm.

As a child we thought it was all fun and games with adventure, we would go around collecting the shrapnel that fell around your area, you would hear it at night dureing the raids ladn on someones roof then it would fall to the ground, thats mine we would say, as soon as the all clear was sounded of we would go before any one else got to it. One of the things we did like to watch was filling the barrage ballons up and to see the monster rise, then up in the sky they would go.

Then one night it all came to a end, german bombers came over, but this time the RAF had night fighters up, we heard this fighter fireing his guns at these bombers, next we heard this whistling and BANG. BANG. BANG., mum said ** that was close. Next morning after the all clear,mum said i'll go and make a cup of tea. We opened the shelter door and could see right across the road, the house had gone the only thing we got was a clock we had on a wall over the fire place and it was still ticking. The next thing that I remember was getting off the Woolston ferry walking up a street and past a church that had been Bombed. Wewas put on a train all of us, and the next thing I remember was waking up in our Grandmother house in a place called Horwich nr Bolton Lancashire.I hated it, smoking chimneys,cold and bleak,cobble streets and clogs.My aim was to go back to Southampton were to me the sun always shind, I joined the R.A.F.in 1952 go posted near Cambridge were I met my wife that was 1956 and I am still here even after 15 years service,and 45 years married.I still suport my home team come on the ssints.

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