大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer for CSV on behalf of Ivor Phillips and has been added to the site with his permission. Ivor Phillips fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I lived in Swansea during the war with my mum, dad and two sisters, my third sister wasn鈥檛 born till after the war. My dad was a Bevin Boy which meant that because he was a miner he wasn鈥檛 allowed to go to war, he had to stay at home and work in the mines. When he finished work he was an air raid warden.

In the blitz of Swansea in 1941 or 1942, I can鈥檛 remember, there were two consecutive nights when my father was out dealing with the bomb damage and the fires. The garage next door was hit by incendiary bombs and he had to go and try and put the fire out.

We were last-but-one in a terrace of houses and next to us were three shops. One night the two shops furthest away were hit by a bomb and my mother, myself and two sisters were sheltering under the stairs in what was called the pantry. When the bomb landed all the stuff fell off the shelves, I remember the sugar and a box of buttons came down on top of us.

The blitz lasted for two nights while the German planes were bombing Swansea docks. The day after the second night my father and myself went into the town. We always did our weekly shopping at Liptons and I can still remember the smell of the cheese and the marble counters. But on this day as we walked down the high street there was no Liptons, it had been flattened. There was no shop there at all. I can鈥檛 remember where we got our food that day.

I don鈥檛 remember feeling scared, because I was so young it just seemed another part of normal life. But I can remember my father being scared. When he was out he used to worry about us. He was usually a quiet man but he was energised during the blitz. He used to come home wondering if the house was still standing.

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