大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the 大象传媒 Learning Centre on behalf of Maureen Harman with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was born on a farm in Hampton Fields, Minchinhampton, in 1937, just before the war started.

We lived near Aston Down aerodrome and had a good view of the comings and goings there and the hangars. I remember Dad telling me about two aeroplanes that collided near our farm. One crashed and the pilot was killed and the other one made it back to base.

Mum told me one day she was feeding the chickens and there was a plane overhead with the flak bursting around it. She thought it was practice. Later on she found out it wasn't practice, it was real and she was stood there watching it. If she had known I don't think you would have seen her for dust! It was a German reconnaissance plane taking photographs of the aerodrome and they were firing at it.

Dad's Uncle Gus from Cirencester used to visit each week and he used to watch the planes and one day he watched them longer than he usually did and next thing Mum and Dad had officials from the airfield coming and asking if they had seen him and who he was and what he was doing and why was he watching the planes. He never watched them for so long again!

Life on the farm was fun. I was an only child and I used to play with the animals and later on I used to fetch the cows. I used to make my own fun. Sometimes I used to join the village people but it was a very tiny village, only a couple of streets.

We used to grow vegetables like cabbages and potatoes because food was rationed and we had to help feed the nation. The women's land army helped with that.

Dad was a licensed slaughterman so he started off as a butcher before the war and during the war he killed pigs. That was shared around some of the villagers to help them out.

He had certificates from two Victory Churn contests in 1943-44 and 1944-45 in recognition of the loyal work for the country in producing milk. The second one I was told was more difficult to get and he was very proud. I remember him holding them up to show us after they had been framed and they were hung on the wall.

I remember the rationing and I remember standing in the queue for sweets in Woolworth's in Stroud and my Mum was behind me with her coupons to buy some aswell. I wasn't allowed to speak to her or even look at her in case the assistant thought I wasn't alone and wouldn't let me have my sweet ration.

I used to have a Mickey Mouse gasmask for children complete with the ears and the eyes. The nose was a bit different though, which gave it a very long face. I remember playing with it and putting it on. I suppose I was encouraged to do that just in case. Mum and Dad both had gas masks but they were very basic, there was nothing decorative about theirs, and they were stored in buff-coloured boxes, the three of them.

The sirens really stick in my mind. The long straight sound was the all clear but the up and down sound was the emergency.

We were all very proud of what the farm did for the war. We never went without, that I remember.

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