大象传媒

We went everywhere carrying our gasmasks. My baby sister had a long one that you laid her in and shut the lid. Later she had one with a Mickey Mouse tongue and I was jealous as mine was plain. Mother got us out of bed when the air raid sirens went and put us all under the long wooden kitchen table - we spent many nights under there shaking in fear as the planes went over to drop bombs on Norwich. Daytimes as the planes flew over it seemed as if the sky was full - it reminded me of flocks of birds.

German POWs were brought to work in the fields and I was so afraid of them that I crept past them on the other side of the lane as they ate their dinner. They made wooden toys for the children; my sister had a green crocodile and Peter, our neighbours son,had a parrot that flopped over when you squeezed the handles. I do not remember having a toy made by them - perhaps I refused as to me they were the enemy.

On August 18 1944 we heard the planes coming back and one was coming fast and low, it just missed my house. We ran out of the yard to look and saw it crash two fields away. Four Americans died and five survived. In 1997 we were able to find the Pilot of that plane and he came over here. We also went to America to visit him and met the Waist Gunner. We have since met the Co-Pilot who has also visited us.

In 1944 we were playing near a small fir wood near our house and heard a different noise (we knew the doodle-bug noise but not this one). My cousin who was evacuated from London and lived with us shouted "Get down" and there was an awful crash.Bits of metal and wood flew over us and the ground shook. The dust was so thick that you could not see.We all screamed for Mum and I was so pleased to see her and a neighbour running across the field to reach us. We were very close to where the V2 crashed and were alive because my cousin knew the sound. Luckily no one was killed.

Each time we came into Norwich there were more buildings gone.I remember clearly seeing the Firefighters putting out a fire at Bonds (now John Lewis) and the hoses across the road and the smoke rising.Where Debebnhams store now is there was a large pit filled with water to fight the fires with - there was one at the Back of the Inns too.

We saw Spitfires one day shooting at a German plane and the bullets landed all across the
top of the neighbours galvanised shed roof. The bomb disposal people came and took them out.
We probably got quite bombed in our village because nearby dummy marshalling yards had been built to draw the bombs away from Thorpe Station - vital for getting the plane parts out by rail.When the German planes approached they put on the lights at the dummy site to fool them into thinking that they had found the target.

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