大象传媒

I was 3 years old when the War began. I remember being evacuated straight away with my Mother. We were taken by bus to Chelmsford, Essex, (only a few miles from home). There we waited outside the Police Station until someone offered us a home. We stayed in a very nice house but only stayed two weeks. My Father was at home and working long hours on munitions. When he got home at night, as we had no black-out curtains, he could not put on a light or cook for himself. Therefore, it was back to London.

Soon afterwards, the bombs started to fall. This was terrifying for a small child. I was woken in the night, dressed, very reluctantly, and taken down the garden to the Anderson shelter. Sometimes the whole place shook. On occasions we stayed in the house. The safest place was considered to be under the stairs so we three squashed in there while a raid was on. We had an Army camp at the end of the garden and their searchlight lit up the area.

Later, one night the house shook violently and we could hear continuous explosions. These turned out to be the ack-ack guns nearby. After the War we found out that these were useless as defence as they did not have the range to reach the German planes.

My Mother and myself then went to stay at Bedford with relatives. Dad stayed at home. We moved from there and stayed with a very nice couple who treated me as a grandchild. Mum used to get furious and upset when the Bedford people would stand at night and watch the red glow over London as a spectacle. Obviously Dad was right in it. We stayed in Bedford almost two years. We then returned home again.

I started school. There were only two classes for the whole primary school and we had 60 children in my class. Some had to climb over desks to get out. If there was an air-raid, we were taken to large brick shelters and the teachers would lead us in songs to drown out the sound of the bombs etc.

When the V.1 rockets started to fall, Mum and I went to Markyate in Hertfordshire to stay with my Aunt. This was my first experience of living in the country. I attended the village school. At one time I had six other cousins all at this school as they, too, had come from London to escape the rockets. We stayed here for about 9 months.

Our house in Wanstead was very badly damaged many times. The roof was replaced three times and we rarely had glass in the windows. We lived quite near London Docks, next to a park with a chain of ponds. Many people thought that the German pilots mistook the lakes for the river and dropped their bombs accordingly.

Food was very short by now. I did not know what a banana was and occasionally we were given an orange to take home from school. We were also given cardboard "tins" of cod liver oil and malt, which was like thick, dark syrup. As we did not have sweets, this tasted good to us.We had relatives abroad and they would send us a parcel of food sometimes. Mum used to mix the small butter ration with the margarine ration to make it taste a little better.

Any leftover food was placed in the pig-bucket and these were emptied regularly from outside the house. We also used to collect hips and haws and acorns in the park for the pigs.

Next came the V.2 rockets and these were really terrifying as there was no warning at all. With a friend I visited some ladies and they gave us a piece of Christmas cake each - a real treat. Unhappily the next day a V.2 fell and they were both killed.

I remember V.E. Day clearly. All the houses were bedecked with flags and everybody was walking in the streets cheering. We children had a great time. We had three Army camps near home and each gave a party for the local children. We got lovely presents from the Americans and Canadians and were given a real feast. We were taken for rides in the Army lorries and even allowed to scramble over the searchlights. Ther were also street parties for the children.

I have many more memories of that time which for me had very bad times and some good ones.

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