大象传媒

My life in world war two

This story was submitted to the 大象传媒 WW2 People鈥檚 War site by Mrs M A Nallen of St Benedict鈥檚 Catholic High School on behalf of Mrs Hilda Read and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I am an 88-year-old woman. When I was 23, my husband Charlie came home from work, and said 鈥淭he war is on, every body is talking about it鈥�. We had a little baby daughter called Jo. We lived in Townsend Street, Cheltenham, which was very near to the railway line and the gasworks.

Townsend Street and the surrounding area was bombed. I grabbed my baby, and ran out into the road in shock. The world was yellow. I ran up the road to Mrs Lane as she had a lot of faith in God, and I felt safe with her. We went down to her cellar and she gave me some egg nog to drink, to calm me down a bit. She said the next street over from us was bombed badly, and 8 people had died.

Our house, which we were buying from the council, had got damaged which left the house with no corners.

We could not go back to that house, so we moved to Naunton in the Cotswolds, as that鈥檚 where my family lived. Our house in Cheltenham was repaired, but we could not go back because of municipal dept. A man from London moved in there instead.
Charlie decided to go into the army. He went to Cairo and taught young men to drive.

Researched by Gregory Clarke

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