大象传媒

We lived in 'Fairhaven' on the West Wittering Road from 1927-1951. I was 12 at the beginning of the war, and one of 5 children. My father was in the Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry and then transferred to the South Wales Borderers; he spent part of the war guarding the Newport Railway Tunnel in South Wales. My two older sisters Nancy and Betty joined the land army during the war, whilst I, my younger brother Den and sister Eileen attended the Village school.

At the beginning of the war I remember all the London evacuees, mainly from Streatham and Tooting billeted locally; we did not have any evacuees, as there were too many of us already, but we did talk and play with the Evacuees. I can remember the first Air-raid warning and my mother seeing a plane flying very high, it was probably a reconaissance plane. I also remember having to wear gas masks at school to get used to them - they were horrible.

After Dunkirk, the Army took over our village school at Birdham, and we were sent to the 'Bell Inn' where there was a hall. In the morning we would have lessons and in the afternoon the Evacuees would have their lessons.

We then found that access to the beaches at West Wittering was not allowed, as they started building barbed wire fencing and other obstructions.

When the Battle of Britain started we had no Air Raid Shelter, in fact we never had an air raid shelter, so when the sirens sounded we would get in to the ditches at the side of the road - fortunately there was no water in them.

We would watch the dog fights overhead and we saw Hurricanes doing victory rolls.We also saw others that had crashed; two crashed in the same field one straight in to the ground, the other laning on its belly. And then a few days later another Hurricane crashed in the field opposite our house, and we were told not to go near it as none of the guns had not been fired.

When the sirens went off we would watch all the planes from Thorney Island climing into the air, (I think they were Hudsons) not wanting to be caught on the ground; the fighters were based at Tangmere.

We were always out picking Blackberries and it seems quite surreal to have dogfights going on in the sky, whilst calmy picking Blackberries.

I also remember going up to Chichester to see 'Pinocchio' at the cinema, but as we arrived in South street the sirens sounded and we were ushered into an air raid shelter under 'Shipphams' shop. I spent the afternoon there and then went home and never saw the film.

I can also remember seeing some German aircrew who had crash landed and been caught, being marched up to Chichester. They looked very arrogant at that time.

The ladies of the Village formed a WVS -womens Voluntary Service and opened a canteen at 'Holt Place', I think in a shed, which grew as the war went on.

One day when I was returning from the canteen, I was strafed by a low flying German aircraft, I didn't know what type it was; I dived into the orchard under the trees - quite scary.

When the ladies first opened the canteen, and there was a lot of shrapnel around they were supplied with helmets, but as there was a shortage of proper tin hats, they were given enamel potties to wear home;I don't think my mother ever wore hers.

One evening we had a land mine dropped nearby in a field and made a great big hole in the ground. All the local boys including my brother would go out searching for bits of shrapnel and parachute silk.

One night when there was bombing we could see Portsmouth on fire, and then we had evacuees from Portsmouth moved in to the area.

The Canadian Army then started being billeted near us and were visting the WVS canteen. They were camped at 'Cattlegate' a large local house. By then my two older sisters used to go to local dances and had a few Canadian boyfriends.

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