大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by Cornwall CSV Storygatherer, Martine Knight, on behalf of Mike Lyon. His story was given to the Trebah WW2 Video Archive, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2004. The Trebah Garden Trust understands the terms and conditions of the site.

As teenager when war broke out, my father was head of the Fire Brigade in Cornwall and I lied about my age in order to join the Brigade at the age of 15, wanting to 鈥榮ee some action鈥�.
One day I was on duty at Bodmin railway station when there was a VIP visit by Montgomery and Eisenhower. Eisenhower said, 鈥滸ood morning lad鈥� before going up to the barracks.
On another occasion I was in a Fire Service van near Bodmin barracks when two German bombers carried out a raid. The cannon shells and machine gun bullets came down the road 鈥榣ike hailstones鈥� and some of the boys jumped out of the van and ran for cover, but I was advised to stay put and so saw the pilot of the second plane and saw his bomb fall.

In the build up to the D-Day communication was severely restricted 鈥� letterboxes were sealed and phone boxes disconnected.
A side road at Marazanvose was sealed off and used to store ammunition. It was piled up, by cranes, as high as the telegraph poles. I went on Fire Service duty to dam the nearby stream to provide a head of water in case a fire should break out. However, I reckon that if the ammo had caught fire it would have 鈥榖lown Cornwall off the map鈥�.

I later joined the Army and served abroad, but some of my clearest memories are of the time leading up to D-Day.

VIDEO DETAILS CWS030804 00:41:17 鈥� 03:08:10

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