大象传媒

On the day war broke out, I heard someone say "the Germans are in Warsaw" I mistook Warsaw for Walsall and was very disturbed because I knew it was only a few miles away and our insurance man lived there. When I told my parents this, they had a good laugh out of it and ruffled my hair,saying "No,not that Walsall,bab, - the one in Poland!It's a long way over the sea"
"Near Rhyl, you mean" I replied.
For a long time nothing happened to us civilians. We filled sandbags, older men became air-raid wardens,young people in their teens below call-up age helped too. Women wore trousers and went to work in munitions factories and slogans and posters went up on walls and public buildings. Songs were written-like "run,Adolf, run"We all waited,watching the skies.
When it came,it was worse than I had imagined.Every morning,after an air-raid,we would emerge from the shelter under the house where my grandparents lived to find old familiar landmarks had disappeared.The streets were full of bricks and dust,with water gushing from burst mains. The smell of gas and burning filled the air and sometimes you could hear people moaning from under the rubble.We lost neighbours and school-friends in that first year,but no relatives.
A young bride who lived in our yard died of tuberculosis whilst her husband was at the front. They had spent their wedding night at our house in my parents'bed.I remember we all slept downstairs.On that same night, I went outside and across the yard to the(shared) toilet only to find a sailor fast asleep on the seat.He was later to perish at sea on the HMS Hood.
My cousin Arnold was a mate of his and also joined the Navy.He served as a commando and was torpedoed twice during the war.However, he did survive and became a boxer in civvy street.By the end of the war, all of my cousins and one uncle had served in the armed forces.My dad worked in an aircraft factory, so was never called up.

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