大象传媒

For me the war started when I was nine years old and my first memory is of going to the village shop and collecting black roller blinds that my mother had ordered.

There was the occasional air raid warning as we lived beside the operational aerodrome at Horsham St Faith, near Norwich.

I was the eldest, with three brothers and we all went to the local school about five minutes walk away from our house. I next remember my father joining the army in January 1940. He was a gunner in the Royal Artillery.

We had evacuees in the village, they came mostly from Bethnal Green, there were so many that we couldn鈥檛 all fit into the school, so one week they went in the mornings and we went in the afternoon and the next week it was reversed. We all seemed to get on well together and some of them couldn鈥檛 understand our Norfolk dialects and we had a job coping with the cockney accents, but I don鈥檛 recall it being much of a problem, we all had some good games together.

When the war got into its stride, we had a few stray bombs dropped close by when the aim for the drome was misplaced, but as the village was surrounded by fields there was never any real harm done, just a few craters which annoyed the local farmers as it made the crop growing difficult.

When the siren sounded, we were allowed to go home as a group of us lived so close to the school. One day we were walking home and watching a plane go round and it suddenly came straight at us and was machine gunning us. We all took to our heels and ran to our various homes and the next day it was found that the bullets were in the well we all used for water, and water pipes were put in the gardens as the well water was declared unsafe. We were not allowed home after that but had to stay at school where the shelter was like a gigantic concrete table. I was terrified to be under it!

September 1941 saw me leaving the village school and going to the Secondary Modern, which was in the suburbs of Norwich, right beside the Aerodrome. We were allowed a free seat on the school bus, or a bicycle, and as I had always wanted a bike and knew we couldn鈥檛 afford one, that was what I chose. The school was four miles away, but I had the use of the bike for out-of-school hours and gladly did those journeys to reap the benefit.

On April 23rd 1942, my fourth brother was born. Four days later on the 27th and 28th, there was the Blitz on Norwich. Although there was no damage to our village, we could hear all the noise and I had to settle my three eldest brothers and the baby. I think we all finally slept around dawn. I do remember I was late waking up and afraid I would be late for school but needn鈥檛 have worried because the school was closed and taken over as a reception area for people that had been bombed out and needed a temporary home.

Although my mother was still in bed, she told the district nurse (who visited daily) that if necessary we could take someone and we did have a lady with a little girl who came only for the day as a home was found for them before tea time. On the 20th of April my father came home on a week鈥檚 compassionate leave before going off to become a desert rat in the Eighth Army.

I recall my life was very busy at that time, I think perhaps I became an adult very quickly. My mother was not well and didn鈥檛 get up until mid May. By then my brothers were nine, eight and six and there was the baby.

We had a large garden in which we grew all our own vegetables, had fruit bushes and kept chickens and rabbits for the table. While he was home, Dad had set all manner of things and told me how to manage the crops.

I think it was during this summer that my third brother had pneumonia and was in hospital in Norwich for a week, then transferred to a convalescent home in Cromer, which was bombed, so he was taken back to Norwich and then sent home for extra nursing.

Most of my education at this time seemed to be spent down the air raid shelters at school - sometimes four or five times a day the siren would go. We also got issued with gas masks and bid trailers came to the playground for us to go into and have the gas masks tested. We did learn to cook when possible but I got plenty of that at home.

I well remember June 6th 1944 when after a restless night, my mother woke me and said our troops had landed in Normandy, I found I had a swollen face and sore throat and mumps. No school, no contact with the boys or the baby. Bed and books. Needless to say as soon as I was up and recovered, the boys went down with it, one after the other, but the baby escaped.

In July of that year I left school on a Friday and had to hand my bicycle in. I started work on Monday morning at a Department Store in Norwich. Mother bought me a bike which I paid back at two shillings a week. I now had six miles from home to travel each day. It was a bit scary in the black-out but being brought up in the country, I was used to the dark. We still had the odd air raid warning and went to shelters in the shop basement.

In May 1945, the war was declared over, but for my family it didn鈥檛 really seem so until Dad came home in November and there was a difficult time all getting used to him and a different way of life.

An ordinary war as for many people, but I feel perhaps it deprived me of an education and took away five years of my life.

This story was submitted to he People's War site by Sarah Evans of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Monica Green and has been added with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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