大象传媒

I was born on the Isle of Wight in 1927 but in 1939 I was living with my father and younger sister Patricia in lodgings belonging to Elsie Borthwick and her family, on the edge of Chiswick, in what was then Middlesex. When Chamberlain announced that we were at war, Dad took Pat and I back to the Island to stay with Gran (Mahala Mansell) in Ryde. For some months nothing appeared to be happening. We went to school and practiced wearing our gas masks.

The Island seemed the same and yet, not the same. Many of the hotels had closed and Puckpool Park had been taken over by the Navy. At first, we could still go on the beach, but then the Army took it over. One of the woods just outside Ryde suddenly filled up with hundreds of Canadian soldiers in tents and near the beach, another wood was filled with British soldiers.

One day, I was sitting on a wall on the promenade with a few of my friends and we were looking at the Barrage Balloons that had been put up over Portsmouth. We had become used to our planes flying over by this time. They had a distinctive sound and sometimes we waved at them but most times not. On this day there was a horrible droning noise and we turned to see German planes heading towards Portsmouth. They flew on over us and as we watched, they shot down every single balloon and then bombed the harbour and the town.

After that we would often hear the siren and Gran would tell us to get in the cupboard under the stairs. I stayed in bed, partly because I didn鈥檛 like enclosed spaces but I also had a sneaking suspicion that if a bomb had hit, we would have been cut to ribbons because all the crockery was stored in there.

After one night-raid we could hear the guns in a field behind us. The sound was loud and echoed for ages and they shot down a German plane not far from us. The following morning we found a small round tin with a screw top at each end and it had German writing. There was some sort of grease in it. Probably from the plane that came down.

Great Uncle Charlie was in the Merchant Navy and travelled all over the world on a ship called the "San Demetrio". Whenever he came home he used to bring all sorts of interesting items with him and on one occasion arrived with a monkey. The animal took an instant dislike to Gran and when we all sat down at the table for lunch, it leapt up, grabbed handfuls of food and started pelting her with it. It wasn't a long term house guest.

Even though we were at war, children were deemed to be safe on the Island and we pretty much had the run of it. Five of us were at a loose end one day and one of my friends said 鈥淢y father owns a big orchard鈥�, so off we went and tried the fruit from different apple and pear trees. It was very nice, but not much of a challenge, so we wandered off across several fields and came across another orchard. There was a big house at the other end and we dared each other to 鈥榮crump鈥� some apples. We were just stuffing them up our jumpers when the sirens went. We dashed into the next field and were running like mad when we heard a plane flying low and spraying bullets as it went. We threw ourselves into a hedge and prayed.

When it had gone, we got up, stuffed the apples up our jumpers again and headed back towards the house. A man came running out and took us inside where a lot of people had taken cover in the big hall. Everyone was asking us if we were okay and then the apples started falling on the floor. We pointed to my friend and said we had picked them in her dad鈥檚 orchard. I don鈥檛 think they believed us but the fact we could have been shot seemed more important.

After that, the rest of the country was being targeted so we had a fairly quiet time apart from the 鈥榓ck ack鈥� guns, but one day, as I was wandering around the country lanes, there was a most uncanny silence. All the Canadian and British soldiers had gone; even the sailors in Puckpool Park. It was D-Day.

Go to Hazel's War - Part 2 Under Attack in London.

Go to Hazel's War - Part 3 The War Effort.

Go to Hazel's War - Part 4 Dances, Spivs and one legged tights.

Go to Hazel's War - Part 5 Great Uncle Charlie.

Go to Hazel's War - Part 6 The Human Cost.

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