大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War webiste by Ian Chapman on behalf of Harry Wright, the author, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

Earliest memory the street lights were being dismantled, light bulbs removed and the air sirens tested. I was five and in my parents bedroom poorly but remember this vividly. The evacuees came by train.

I was one of nine children on a farm in Brackley Northants. Mother was told she didn't have to have any evacuees but she said she couldn't leave them crying and took three to start with, then two more. Two were very small and have recently been in touch. We had 2 tables in the kitchen for 18 people every meal. We never went short of food with all the rations for that lot and by living on a farm. We also had a family living with us at the farm.

We were surrounded by aerodromes; Turweston, Finmere, Hinton, Croughton, Upper Heyford, Silverstone, Chipping Warden. It's amazing that we weren't blown off the earth there were so many.

The aircraft could be seen taking off on the bombing runs to Germany from the air feilds. We would see them go out and we'd try to see them return the next morning.
Counting how many did. Even so this was exciting for me as a child I'll never forgot V.E Day. I went up into the attic and put the union flag through the window on its pole and broke the window! No body minded because it was so exciting!

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