大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War Site by Len Ralph(CSV Volunteer 大象传媒 Radio Newcastle) on behalf of Benjamin G Bolton and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

We were all in bed, my parents brother and sister. The air raid warning sounded and we all went to the shelter. After about half an hour there was a load crashing and banging followed by a large explosion. The all clear sounded and we returned to the house, my brother and I went to our room to find a kerbstone on our bed and a very large hole in the roof. The bomb had landed two streets away in Queen Alexander Road. The crashing and banging was from the debris landing in Preston Cemetary. We were glad we went to the shelter that night.

Father took my brother and I to an Inter services Boxing Match at Appleby Park Football Ground. During an intermission a German bomber flew over very high chased by two RAF fighters. The master of cerimonies apologised for the disturbance and said it was not part of the entertaiment, but would keep us informed of the outcome. At the end of the contest he came back to announce that the bomber had been shot down off the Scottish Coast. This was greeted with loud cheering. I cannot remember the result of the boxing contest!

I was about fifteen and started work as a cabin boy (civilian employee) with the Royal Army Service Corp Water Transport 629 Coy., stationed on the Tees. I soon began to notice a build up of various barges and landing craft, some had turret mounted guns along the foredeck, which seemed a bit strange to us at the time. we were moored beside some lock gates one morning when a large deep sea tug came out of the lock towing a very large block of concrete, we were all mystified as to what it was. Several days later we went around to the river and foud all the barges had disappeared. I t was later that we realised that this had been part of the 'D' Day Invasion fleet.

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