大象传媒

My father was a member of the ARP and although not at the front doing military service my mother and I saw very little of him.
When not at home he was billeted at Penpole a location near Shirehampton in Bristol. He told us some of the harrowing experiences he had after and during bombing raids.
One affect was that his hair greyed rapidly but he suffered much stress.
An outcome of this was that ARP members were giving a week's break in the countryside. We had a week on a farm near Castle Cary. My memory of that was going out with my father and he shot rabbits which helped the rationing process.
My mother suffered stress as well because of the worry about my father and the risks he was taking.
I also had an uncle who was in the auxillary fire service and was always on call out. He related funny times as well as hard times although I would imagine he was putting a brave face on things and there were more moments no funny at all.
One such incident which was in the local press was when in extreme cold weather everything froze including them freezing to the hoses as they used them.
There were moments when we could not get to the shelter in time and one moment I recall is hiding under the table with my mother and father during an air raid.
My age span during the war was from three to nine years and cannot recall to much in detail.
However there are highlights hence my title Bristol Burning. I lived on an estate called Southmead which was built in and about 1936. My parents were rehoused there when I was a baby.
This is approximately six miles from the city centre. The main shopping area for Bristol was between the city centre and Old Market Street. It was known as Castle Street although the shops spread over a number of streets.
Castle Street area was one of the main targets of the Luftwaffe as part of the demoralisation process adopted by Hitler and the Nazis's.
The point I am getting around to is that bombing occured in the evenings and on the shops they used incendaries. Therefore at night you could stand out in the street and watch the red glow of buildings burning six miles away.
Another tradegy I remember was when my father and I were cycling home from my Auntie's who was looking after me because my mother was in hospital because whole system was poisoned because of an infection. Incidentally she was one of the first civilians given penecillin because it was kept for the troops
As we were cycling home we came to a crossroads and there was a convoy of vehicles passing before us and these were full of injured and dead because of a direct hit on a shelter for aircraft workers working at the Bristol Aeroplane Company which is now part of British Aerospace.
When we arrived home all the windows and doors of our house had been blown out because of a direct hit on four houses in our Street. Fortunately all the families were in air raid shelters away from the house.
The bombing was unusual because the main target was the aircraft works. It was assumed that a pilot was dropping the bombs because he had missed hi target.
Another recollection was that we used a neighbours air raid shelter because ours was above the ground while they had an Anderson shelter which was part buried and covered by turf.
Each time the siren sounded at night we had to clamber across gardens and climb fences. Meanwhile our dog, a mongrel, escaped and usually chased the air raid wardens and barked at them. You could hear their growls in return.
The Second World War is a dim reminder now although the overall experience did have a traumatic affect long after. It took me a long time to lose my fear of thunderstorms because of the sound of thunder and not the lighting which I now realise is the biggest danger.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.