大象传媒

I was born in 1936 in Portsmouth. By 1939 we were living in a small bungalow in Portchester. I can remember little of 1939 other than running out to the garden gate as the 鈥楢ll clear鈥� siren sounded shouting 鈥楢ll clear, All clear!鈥� My father worked as a civilian in an army depot in the north of Portsmouth. He was quickly moved to a large garage that had been taken over by the army in South London. We moved out of the bungalow which was then let to tenants and my mother and I moved in with my grandparents and uncle in a bungalow round the corner. I cannot remember how we all fitted into this building with just two bedrooms but people put up with the disruption, quoting the well worn phrase 鈥淚t鈥檚 just for the duration鈥�!

My mother and I spent a number of nights in the sitting/dining room of the bungalow whilst loud explosions of bombs seemed to be all about us. The electric light would go off for some of the time and sometimes flash, we would be in darkness as blackout curtains had been fitted and of course there were no street lights! At such times I would be under the dining table. We did not take to the Anderson shelter in the garden as this was full of water as were all that I ever saw. My memory is dim now as one pushes aside horrific scenes. I do not remember seeing any bombed houses in Portchester, but I do remember seeing the large Landport Drapery Bazaar store in Portsmouth, that we had been in the week previous, just levelled with a fireman sifting through the rubble.

Later in 1941 we joined my father in rooms in Bromley. On many nights when raids were expected we drove to the Chislehurst caves where we spent the night. There was electric light which was reflected off the rough chalk of the passageways. Wooden bunks with a curtain screen were provided that I believe had to be booked. The car had been parked nose in to the side of the road with many others and we walked to the cave entrance. Inside there was a distant hum of the ventilation fans. There was a first aid post with I believe a doctor. There may have been a small cinema and a refreshment area, I did not go to these but I think my parents did whilst I tried to sleep. In the mornings we came out of the caves and drove back to Bromley. There would be some smoking piles of rubble where buildings had been and I can recall some shops in Bromley that had been completely demolished by bombs.

In 1942 my father moved to an ordnance depot at Donnington in Shropshire. We moved to rooms in Newport. That house although in the town did not have electricity or gas, just oil lamps and a kitchen range with an outside loo. Of course the nights were quiet, I cannot remember if we had a radio, it would have had batteries one of which had to be recharged! I went to a school at the other end of the town near an old fashioned gas works which sometimes smelt of gas.

In 1943 we moved into a new house on an estate built for the workers at the depot. It was one of the last houses in the estate to be built, had a flat roof, concrete stairs, rusty steel window frames and floors of lino on concrete. It had a range type fireplace which heated the water and had an oven which my mother did not use. I went to a church school not too far away that was approached through the gardens of some miners鈥� terraced cottages. I can remember practising and then performing a dance with other children in the class, with an audience to raise money to buy a Spitfire. We stayed in the Donnington area for many years. I wonder if anyone can recall taking 6d (old pence) to school to buy a National Savings stamp. These were put in a booklet and when we had the grand total of 15 shillings the stamps were cashed in for a certificate.

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