大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Katie from Swavesey Village College, on behalf of Catherine Fenwick. Catherine fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Two weeks after I was born, the war was declared. I had two sisters and a brother. Dad was in the marines, he served in the 1st World War as well as this one. As my mum was ill at the time, they sent Dad to Scotland and he helped service the ships etc, but he never talked about it much.

At home, when I was six months old we were evacuated to south Wales. My sisters and brothers went first; they were all staying at different places (but in the same town). Mother followed later with me, she did her best to look after us, which was very difficult. About 6 months went by, Mother gave up and we all came home.

Cardiff was bombed, as much as Gillingham. We were close to Bhatham, Dockyard, and the German bombers were bombing all the time. There was an army camp at the end of the road, the soldiers were all very nice, and they had bars of chocolate occasionally and the best cream buns with chocolate on the top, fresh from the cook house.

There was a big gun at the end of the road, and when the German bombers came over, it would start up which gave us all confidence.

We hold the traditional bomb shelter in the back garden, we slept out in it a few times but by the time mum got us all in, it was too difficult. She found it easier to put the dinning table under the stairs, and we all used to climb in. We felt safe when we heard the German bombers coming and our gun at the end of the end of road starting up gave us lots of confidence. One night a German bomb came through the clouds and landed 200 yards away on a large country house. Nobody was killed at the time, about 1/3 of the house disappeared. There were a lot of houses hit by bombs and people killed or injured. It was all very sad, but everybody worked together to help each other out.

We had a big skipping rope across the road, held by two mothers, they would turn the rope and children would skip through- it all seemed wonderful at the time.

The milkman came by horse and cart and so did the baker, it was exciting. When the horses messed, we used to run out with a shovel and bucket, there used to be arguments as to who would collect for the gardens. There were concrete pyramids set in the pavement about 3 feet high in case Germans came in daylight and you could hide behind them.

We had a playing field with swings and different things, we were all there one day and a doodlebug came, I was about 5 at the time, my sisters and brother thought it was wonderful. Flames were coming out back and suddenly it stopped, I was crying all the time, my sisters and brother wondered what was going to happen. It drifted on, came down and hit some houses somewhere. Some more people were killed and injured, everyone worked together for the families. There were lots of bad days and some good ones, days to always remember.

Then the end came. There was a great big street party, it was wonderful. The soldiers came with tables and chair; everybody brought something, sandwiches, cakes, jelly. Everything you could think of, half way down the street there was a piano and a lady had knickers made of union jacks with elasticated legs, knee length. We sang all songs, Knees Up Mother Brown, the National Anthem, it was really magic and wonderful, it was finally over.

Men started to come home, some were injured, some were blinded, but unfortunately some did not return at all.

My Dad came home and bought presents for us all. I remembered a toy Scots soldier, and we all had to get to know Dad again. It was a whole new experience for me.

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