大象传媒

Entered on behalf of Valerie Newland (nee King)
I was 10 years old on 12 August 1939 and we had a nice party on the beach at Hayling Island with all my cousins. In September I was in church when the vicar announced that the war had started. When I got home my Dad was quite concerned. A month or two later our beach hut had to be removed from the beach in order for the beach defences to be put in place. I can remember Dad having to dig a big hole for the Anderson shelter in our back garden. The shelter was covered with soil and grass turves put on top.

After the raids started my Mother gave birth to my sister. My Mother would take us down to the shelter but I would crawl out and go back to bed so she had to come and get me out. Dad painted the inside of the shelter and covered it with saw dust which made it more comfortable and after that I slept down there all the time.

Because Mum couldn鈥檛 go out to work because she had a baby, she was allocated two officer Wrens who lived with us in one of our bedrooms. One of the Wrens was an American who brought with her some beautiful long dresses and evening bags, which I used to creep into the room to look at.

At school at Mill Rythe they put the air raid shelters down in the marsh where the infant school is now. There were six long air raid shelters, one for each class. There were lots of air raids as they put decoys here to draw the bombers away from Portsmouth. One day a land mine dropped onto the school playing field and left a huge crater. The children used to go out after a raid looking for bombs and collect shrapnel.

At the school one of the farmers came around to see if there were any children who would like to work on the land during the school holidays, picking potatoes. I applied for that. Our school holidays were reduced to two weeks during the summer. I used to get on the tractor at the top of Fishery Lane with the soldiers from Jersey, and spent the day on the farm.

My Dad was called up but he didn鈥檛 pass the medical because he was deaf. But being a carpenter he had to go to Dorset and build huts for the American Army. This caused him to have a nervous breakdown. Being deaf he couldn鈥檛 hear the stations being called out and the windows of the train were blacked out so he couldn鈥檛 see which station he was at. He was only away for two months. He then did war work on the Island on the bomb damaged houses and St Mary鈥檚 and St Peter鈥檚 churches.

Dad had a big garden and we grew our own vegetables. Dad and I had a race to see who could pack up the sugar first. Because we both liked a lot of sugar in our tea we used to run out by the middle of the week. I managed to give up sugar. Mum kept chickens. At Christmas we used to fatten them up and had the cockerel for dinner. Dad could never kill then so we had to get someone else in to do that.

I really missed the beach but I was in the Guides but I was able to use the swimming pool at Mengham House.

I lost several friends because of the bombs. There was an awful feeling at school the following day when friends had been killed. A bakery on the corner of Palmerston Road was bombed one afternoon and a grandmother and granddaughter were killed.
Another bomb killed a lot in Hollow Lane in an air raid shelter.

When the air raid siren went during the day we just had to make a bee line to the nearest shelter. One day when the siren went, we were all home, Mum and Dad went into the shelter. I was watching the planes which were machine-gunning along Elm Close Estate. Dad just pulled me into the shelter in time.

A friend of ours who lived in Bound Lane got shot in the back and had that bullet inside her for some time.

In Fishery Lane, we had Coronation Camp at the bottom of the road where they had the sailors and they gave us parties at times. One afternoon they had an ankle competition, which I won. At the top of the road was Silver Sands camp where there were soldiers and there were Jersey soldiers in the some of the houses. It was quite a busy time.

Because of Dad鈥檚 illness I did most of the shopping and so I knew about the rationing and when I was 14 I went to work at a small shop on the seafront called Haskett and Payne. It鈥檚 still there. I started there and I was trained on the provisions. I was also in the Red Cross when I was about 11, because of this I wanted to go to the meetings on Friday evenings but the shop owner wouldn鈥檛 let me go. I found out that there was a job going at the Co-op which my Dad hated, but I had twice as much money for less hours.

When the war ended I was still working at the Co-op and there were quite a lot of parties and as I was older I went to a lot of dances at the camps which I enjoyed.

Valerie Newland nee King
15 May 2004

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