大象传媒

I was in the Channel Islands in 1940 with my husband who was in insurance with Norwich Union. The Germans came to my house and said pack up in 20 minutes with your baby, who was a few months old. This I did, and went to collect my husband with all I could carry, and push in the pram. I took only my baby things. I left all my wedding presents and my lovely house behind. My husband took me to the quay to find a boat home, but all the boats were full. Luckily the tide turned and I was at the top of the queue instead of the end. I landed at Weymouth and returned to my family home. My mother, my sister and I hid in Melplash with our two children as we didn鈥檛 want to let the children go to be evacuated. We hid in the country and stole milk from the local farmers cow and eggs from the chickens. We grew all our veg. This was a happy time although we spent time dodging doodlebugs. Many a time we were pushing the pram out and had to hide in the shelter and ditches.

My husband joined the ARP as he had been out of the country too long to go into the RAF. He was very cross about this as he had only been in the Channel Islands. When we were in Bournemouth we did spend a lot of time hiding from the bombs and troops. The flying bombs were a very frequent visitor so we got very used to hiding from them. The noise was never to be forgotten.

We were given ration books for butter meat and cereal and sweets. I can remember my daughter sitting on the pavement and the Americans coming by in their great vehicles and throwing her some bananas. She came in to ask what they were and asked to try one. She was not at all impressed with the flavour or the texture, and to this day does not like them.

My second daughter was born in Nottingham in 1944 before D-day. We were all issued with gas masks, you never went out without them. My daughter had a Mickey Mouse face so it was not so frightening for her to wear. she remembers the smell even today and the feeling of the mask on her face. She remembers the sound of the flying bombs even though she was so young.

We had dried eggs, a powder that smelt horrid and tasted even worse.

Junket was the only sweet we had. Sometimes we were hungry, but we made do with what we had. It made us careful and enjoy what we had. Fresh fruit was issued. We had to queue for most things we wanted when shopping.

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