´óÏó´«Ã½

I was born a few days before Hitler became Chancellor in the Nazi Nationalist Coalition on the 30th January, 1933.
Great Britain declared war with Germany on the 3rd September, 1939, when I was 6 years old.
My first memory is the Anderson Shelter being delivered - it was made of corrugated iron sheets and constructed by bolting the sheets together. It measured approximately 6'high and 6' square. Before my father and brother dug a 3' hole to stand it in, I remember having great fun using the curved sides as a slide.
When the shelter was erected, the soil from, the hole was used to cover it. Inside we made it as cosy as we could: wooden floor to stand on, 4 bunks to lie down on, an oil stove to air it out because it became musty very quickly, and an oil lamp for illumination. Outside we had a porch made of sandbags to stave off the blast of the bombs.
At school we didn't have a specially built air raid shelter because there wasn't any room in the playground, so the corridors were strengthened with steel supports and concrete struts, the windows were covered with fine wire mesh.
When the sirens sounded we made our way to the corridors and sat on wooden forms and played games. I remember sitting near window when a bomb dropped and the blast caused the window to shatter and shards of glass fell in my plasticine.
At the beginning of the war most of the children were evacuated, some of the teachers went with them and others joined the armed forces. Therefore, there was a shortage of teachers which meant that the children who remained behind which included myself, were divided into two groups and attended school for half a day: one week my group went in the mornings and the next week afternoons and vice versa for the others.
Then began the 'phoney war'.
The Spitfire the famous aircraft designed by Reginald Mitchell was built at a factory called "The Supermarine’. This was located on the banks of the River Itchen; of course the Germans were very keen to bomb it to stop the production of these great fighter aircraft.
The first air-raid we had on Itchen, Southampton, was a Sunday tea-time. When the 'All Clear' siren sounded, I remember going out with my mother father and brother to survey the damage. My brother was an apprenticed Gas Fitter and he was waylaid by one of his bosses who asked him to go home a change into his overalls to help repair the gas mains. We had to shelter in a bakers shop as there was the fear of an unexploded bomb - when it exploded a big stone fell on my father's 'hat.

My brother became a Messenger boy for the ARP (Air Raid Precautions). This was a group of young lads who rode their bicycles and took messages from one Post to the other during the air-raids. One night a warden poked his head round our shelter and said John was stuck down the bottom of a bomb crater - luckily he was unharmed.
I remember my sister's boyfriend who was a sergeant in the Royal Engineers coming home after being evacuated from Dunkirk. He brought me a French pencil case which was made of pink leather.
We lived behind my father's shop: this was located right in the flight path of the German bombers who were trying to destroy the Supermarine. One lunch time my aunty Liz was paying us a visit - the sirens sounded and the bombs started falling before we were able to run down the garden to the air-raid shelter, so we went in the cupboard under the stairs. When there was a lull in the bombing Aunty Liz tried to get out of the cupboard - she was so big she got stuck between the shelves - after a lot of tugging they pulled her out: the shelves fell down and best part of my mothers’ best crockery was broken. My brother filled two dustbins which belonged to the butcher who lived next door.
"That afternoon the Supermarine was badly bombed and a shelter which housed some of the workmen had a direct hit and all the people inside were killed. After this raid they relocated the workforce to various locations: some to Hursley Nr Southampton, others to Swindon and different parts of the country: they still managed to keep the production of Spitfires going.
This was the time when the Germans were dropping time bombs - these were bombs which had a clock installed and exploded at the given time - and incendiary bombs. I remember my Mummy coming to get me from school after this raid and there was oil all over the road - she told me that they dropped oil bombs before the incendiaries so that they would burn quickly.
During a night time raid the army used to bring up ack-ack guns (a mobile gun) from Portsmouth. There was a cut at the back of our garden and we had one of these guns at our gate - you could hear the sergeant telling the soldiers to fire.
`The terrace of houses opposite us were bombed and set on fire - I can still see the flames rising over the roof tops. "My dad decided to go indoors to retrieve some of our clothing just in case our house caught fire, a neighbour decided to do the same and found his stairs on fire - as there was no water, the water mains had been bombed, they put rags down the toilet and wet them with the water in the pan and placed the wet rags on the fire to dowse it: this saved our row of houses. Shortly after this we were bombed out. Luckily we had been moved out and whilst we were away there was a direct hit on our air raid shelter!! My father at the age of 55 went to work for the Royal Naval Stores - this was the first time in his life he had worked for someone else other than himself, his grandfather or his father.
Eventually, the bombing reached such a pitch my parents had a job to get me out of the air raid shelter. It was the beginning of December, 1940, I remember it was a Sunday morning, my sister who was 21 at the time, bought me a desk, and chair for Christmas.
In order to entice me out of the shelter she placed it outside the back door. They managed to persuade me to look at it. I ran up the garden, took a peek, said "Yes, it’s nice" and ran back to the shelter. The next day my friend Valerie Hoare and I were evacuated.
I can't remember how we arrived at Southampton Central Station, but I do remember crying my eyes out and carrying a small attaché case, then getting on the train. We must have been in a dining carriage as we sat up to tables. I stopped crying - Valerie started. We arrived at Wareham Station where we were put on buses and transported to Lytchett Mattravers, Dorset. We were dropped off at the Victory Hall: lined up for a very brusque nurse who tugged our hair looking for 'nits', after this we were given jabs against diphtheria. Valerie and I were handed to a Miss Blanchard who lived in a large house with her brother, a bee keeper, and her sister. They had six evacuees. Valerie was billeted with Mr. and Mrs. Cobb, an old couple who slept downstairs and made Valerie sleep upstairs. She only stayed two weeks, her mother came to see us and when she found Valerie's lovely long blonde curly hair was full of lice she promptly took her home. I was billeted with a Captain and Mrs. John Francis Cyril Westerman. He was an author of boy’s sea adventure stories. She was the Chief Billeting Officer of the evacuees in the area. On the day I arrived, Capt. Westerman was away in the army and Mrs. Westerman was visiting her son (by her first husband) Hugh, Lindsay who was a Blenheim Bomber Squadron Lader. He was in hospital suffering from blackouts after too many bombing sorties. Very shortly after this he went back to his squadron and was killed - his aircraft came down half in the water and half on the land at Folkestone - he was just 24 years old. His Widow was only 16.
The maid, who Mrs. Westerman called 'Jane' - because all her maids in the past were Jane, met me (her real name was Francis). Jane showed me a bedroom which I was to share with her. I asked her for the air raid shelter: she showed me a ditch in the field at the back of the bungalow and said I could sleep there if I wished. However, that night we were to sleep at her mothers. Her parents lived in a cottage with her three brothers, one of whom was a game keeper (named Jack). I can see him now sitting in the kitchen cleaning his guns ready for a 'shoot' with his dog Jock by his side. When it was time to go to bed, Mrs. Shiner tried to reassure me that I would be safe to sleep in bed. That night a stray bomber dropped his load on a house at the top of the lane!!! A few nights later they found a German Pilot and the bottom of Mrs. Westerman's garden - they transported him to the Police Station at Wareham.
For toilets at Mrs. Shiner's and the school, one had to use an outside 'privy' just a plank of wood with a hole in it and a bucket underneath (no flushed water) - whilst our toilet at home was outside we did have a flushed toilet, L hated this. It didn't seem so bad using oil lamps for lighting and the kitchen range for cooking, as my mother had to resort to this when the gas mains were bombed - at that time we didn't have electricity.
I was lucky as far as facilities were concerned at 'Eddy Green Cottage' they had a proper bathroom and sinks were fitted in the bedroom. The water was pumped from the well at the front of the cottages every Saturday. The water came out a rusty colour but it was alright for the toilet and for the 'Lady' to have her bath and wash. I used to have my bath in the kitchen in the "teacup" - the name we gave a Victorian high backed slipper bath which took less water.
The drinking water came from a well at the back of the cottage. It was found by 'divining'. Jane used a 'forked' hazel twig (one branch in each hand) and it would shudder when she stood over `the spot where there was a spring. They 'had their own electricity which was obtained from a generator in the shed at the back of the cottage.
The main school consisted of two class rooms too small to accommodate the evacuees, so we went to school in the Victory Hall. The main hall was divided in half by a curtain thus creating two classrooms. One could hear what was going on in the other class. I didn't learn a thing there - instead of progressing, my education was sadly neglected. At Ludlow Road School I was doing 'joined up handwriting' but at Lytchett I wasn't allowed to do this: they made me revert to printing. One thin-, I could do at school was play with other children -Mrs. Westerman frowned on me playing with anyone at home. She was very strict and I used to be beaten with a hairbrush or very minor things. It was a very lonely time. We took sandwiches to school for lunch and ate them at the 'big' school just up the road. We were provided with white cloths to place on the desks. My mother used to send me a food parcel every month - this was made up from their rations - but the only item I had from it was a jar of marmite which Jane spread on like jam. I detested those sandwiches and used to throw then away when I had a chance.
I was evacuated for exactly one year, and was so relieved when my sister believed my stories of the way I was treated and persuaded my mother to let me come home It wasn't a very happy experience, but looking back on things we must have been a great liability to those people who took us in.
The bombing still continued but not so intense. My brother John joined the R.A.F. and trained to become a Bomber Pilot. My sister Winnie became a Civil Servant attached to the Fleet Air arm and moved to Harrogate so life changed I went back to Ludlow Road School and by this time some of the teachers returned and we settled back into a full day at school and once again I began to enjoy my lessons.
The war started to turn in our favour. The American Soldiers were stationed in various parts of Southampton. 'The Allies invaded Sicily and every morning our first lesson after prayers was Current Affairs, appraising us on the events of the war.
Ludlow Road School was surrounded by bombed sites and the army used this as a 'battle ground' practising for the Day Landings in Normandy.
The soldiers came to the school and showed us the ammunition they were using and we were told not to touch them if we found any. In the evenings they practised dummy gas attacks by using smoke bombs: we had to keep our windows and doors closed to stop the fumes coming inside.
Then the doodlebugs started these were the first type of rocket: they had a motor which made a terrible noise and when it stopped you knew it was going to fall and explode. One lunch time my friend June and I were coming home from school, and saw a doodlebug passing over the trees and the bottom of my garden: the motor stopped and luckily it exploded on Ernie Alford's, our greengrocer's orchard. When things were quiet we went to have a look - not only was there a deep crater, but he had baked apples on his trees!!
On a different note: tomatoes were only obtainable during the summer season and on the day when the nurseryman picked them, I used to get up early and before going to school I would queue with my mother to purchase ½lb tomatoes - each persons allowance: thus we would get a 2lb of tomatoes for the family. Saturday mornings saw me queuing for sausages with my mother. Sausages were not considered part of the meat ration, so coupons weren’t necessary but we were only allowed half a pound per head. One had to get tip early before they were sold out.
I remember one Christmas when Christmas cake with icing surprise my Auntie Judy produced a sugar on it - what a treat and to buy some icing sugar as part of her sugar ration earlier in the year and saved it for Christmas.
We kept chickens and when we had a surplus of eggs used to preserve them in a solution called isinglass. They didn't taste the same as fresh eggs but were better than nothing. The Canadians and Americans sent us dried egg and this used to made superb omelettes and scrambled eggs. The The Canadians also sent the school children sweetened cocoa powder which was given to us at school. On the way home we used to dip our fingers in it - it tasted as good as a bar of chocolate - remember sweets were on ration and we didn't get many.
When we had a glut of fruit and tomatoes we bottled them to use in the winter months.

Southampton was the 14th port of Embarkation for the American Army. As 'D' Day (6th June, 1944) approached, our forces were camped in the areas surrounding Southampton, but the American soldiers were billeted in 'Nissan Huts' on Hoglands Park right in the centre of Southampton. We used to watch them through the barbed wire playing baseball. Their Lorries were parked nose to tail on the Perimeter roads round the park and down the high Street to the Docks. American Sailors were based on Weston Shore (our Riviera where we used to swim and play before the war!!) on the edge of Southampton Water.
Queen Victoria Hospital, Netley, a famous British Military Hospital, built on the edge of Southampton water at the instigation of Nurse Florence Nightingale for the injured soldiers from the Crimean War, was taken over during the war by tile Americans. They say that the corridors were so long the Yanks used to drive their jeeps up and down them. Their injured troops would arrive by boat at Southampton Docks. During the night we could near their ambulances racing down the road at the back of our house on their way to Netley. One night there was a terrific bang, everyone got out of bed and rushed up the road where the sound came from (bear in mind that we were experts at getting; dressed quickly) we found an ambulance had severed off the large post box and rammed into the corner grocery shop - every one on board the ambulance had
As the American troops departed for Europe, their camp on Southampton Common was used to accommodate German Prisoners of War.
When 'V.E. Day' (Victory in Europe, 8th May, 1945) was declared in the early hours of the morning, I was asleep in bed. My father woke me up and told me to get dressed - we were going out. What an adventure. We met up with a11 our friends and neighbours coining out of their houses and walked down to the 'Hard' on the edge of the River Itchen
(At this point in time we had a Floating Bridge which ferried across the -River Itchen from Southampton to Woolston a suburb of Southampton, the bridge travelled along two heavy gauged cables stopping it from drifting down the river). The Hard was the starting point of the ferry. We had a fantastic time, all the ships sirens were sounding, everyone was hugging and kissing one another, some people were dancing. Bonfires were lit, and someone even set fire to a car in town.
A few days later we had a street party - trestle tables were placed down the centre of our road and we borrowed forms from the school to sit on. The road was decorated with flags and bunting strung from one side to the other right down the whole length of the road. We had sandwiches, cakes and jelly to eat and orange squash to drink. Our parents enjoyed themselves as well - the men had beer and the ladies tea to drink. They had a collection which enabled us kids to go in crocodile file to the Woolston Picture House twice, on Monday and Thursday when the programmes changed, to see Disney Films.
On the 15th August, 1945, we celebrated 'V.J. Day' (Victory in Japan).
Shortly after this my brother came home from America where he trained to become a bomber pilot: our lads were based in America in case they were needed to bomb Japan.
Everyone tried to get back to normality. The men came home in their new demob suits.
At school during the war, each class adopted a prisoner of war - these were mainly fathers of the pupils, but one class adopted our Caretaker's son. We held raffles during term time to raise money to send them parcels via the British Red Cross. On their return home they came to the school to thank us and told us some of their experiences. My friends Joan Hyde’s father was kept a prisoner on a farm in Poland.
Due to the bombing the country was short of houses. After a while a lot of people "squatted" in the disused army camps. The authorities to erect prefabs (prefabricated bungalows) — they were meant to last ten years, however, they were made so well the majority of them lasted 20 years. On my visits to Tamworth I notice that there is still one being lived in near the cross roads before you come to the traffic lights at the junction of the Dosthill, Tamworth Road, and the A5 - a Social Club is opposite it fairly near to the Bull Public House. These prefabricated bungalows were manufactured in factories which had built spitfires etc. during the war, thus giving the men work. They were assembled on site, and consisted of a sitting room, 2 bedrooms, a fitted bathroom - a luxury for most people - we had to bath in the kitchen in a galvanised bath, the water was heated in the copper in which mother boiled the -clothes and our toilet was situated outside at the rear of the house. The kitchen in the prefab was superb; this amongst other things had a fitted cooker and a gas refrigerator (unheard of in most households). The bungalow was heated by an air duct which flowed from the fire in the living room - the first type of central heating. The German Prisoners of War were made to clear the bombed sites and build the concrete bases on which the prefabs sat. We used to watch the Germans march to work on our way to school. Eventually a prefab was erected on the bombed site where our shop and shelter has once stood. Goods were still on the ration, but we occasionally had bananas - a lot of children had never seen one before.
Sweets came off the ration: there was such a demand they had to be put back on the ration again.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.