大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Ruth Jeavons for Three Counties Action on behalf of Margarita Wensley and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When I was eight, I went to school one morning and saw that during the night a German plane had landed in the school playground. This was at Locks Heath Infants School. The plane was intact. After that we were off school for a long time, but sent to school at Hook instead.

I remember before D Day how the Canadians and Americans were giving oranges to the children and sleeping under their jeeps. The Canadians were camping in the park at Locks Heath before D Day, and they were bombed. They lost 1,500 men. We lived at Tichfield Common, a mile from Park Gate. My Mother and Aunty invited a couple of Canadian soldiers to tea. We kept in touch with them after the war, they came over to see us and sent nylons. I was the first girl in our street to have nylons after the war. My Father was in Canada training to be an RAF officer 鈥� an observer.

I remember the Doodlebugs and the red flames out the back.

We lived in a shelter more often than not. We cringed when the sirens went off when my Mum was shopping in Fareham, as we didn鈥檛 know whether she鈥檇 come back. Would she get to the public shelter in time?

We spent night after night in bunks under army blankets in the shelter. We had tea made on a paraffin stove 鈥� mostly soup and tea. We鈥檇 sleep in the shelter all night and then go straight to school the next morning. Sometimes we鈥檇 spend 2 hours at a time in the shelter when we were at school.

We had a big garden with three quarters of an acre and kept rabbits for the pot and chickens. We bottled fruit 鈥� raspberries, plums, gooseberries and apples. We couldn鈥檛 keep all the fruit as we had to give some to the war effort. I remember great galvanised baths full of Victoria plums.

I hated school. The teacher caned us mercilessly. She used three canes at once and pulled me by the plaits. Once she threw me across the room. I had a massive bruise. We had to keep our eyes exactly 12鈥� away from the paper when we were writing, and our hands 1鈥� from the nib of the pen. What happened to those poor souls who needed glasses I don鈥檛 know? She had a wooden pencil box and we were wrapped over the knuckles with three rulers at once. All the teachers were allowed to cane us.

When I was 12 I went to school at Liss and that was much better.

My father was invalided out of the RAF and we moved to a farm in the country. He鈥檇 had a dairy farm before he was a soldier. He trained at Scarborough and Harrogate. He got half a wing. His brother was a navigator.

I was one of five children, born 1933, 1935, 1937, 1941, and 1943. I had 1 older sister, Maureen 21, brothers Richard and Christopher (born 1937 and 1941) and a younger sister, Jacqueline born in 1943 during the bombing. I remember her pram as it was the first one I鈥檇 seen made of metal 鈥� all black and shiny. Prams before that had been wickerwork.

The nearest bombs to us fell down a well and broke our china. We had evacuees from Portsmouth. Bombed out Mothers and Children. They didn鈥檛 stay long.

We had eggs and my Mother made soda bread with soured milk. There was no picking between meals. All food was kept for proper mealtimes.

We were well clothed during the war. We all wore 鈥渃oms鈥� during the winter 鈥� (all-in-one underwear) with navy blue pants on top and vests and liberty bodices. I had pneumonia when I was 6, after measles. I lay in a big double bed in the guest bedroom and had to have a hot poultice twice a day applied to my chest back and front, so to get the inflammation down. I remember people peering at me from the bottom of the bed. I was in bed three weeks and couldn鈥檛 walk properly afterwards. (I walked funny 鈥� all wobbly). I was given M &B tablets.

We had a corner shop opposite where we lived, and I remember our dog, Dusky an Alsatian, got run over following Mum to it one day. I remember the day when oranges came back in after the war and bananas. They had to put posters up in schools so that children would know which part you could eat as children had grown up never seeing bananas.

I remember rationing. We were allowed liver once every six weeks only. We had to queue for everything. It was organised by your initials and you missed your ration if you weren鈥檛 there when your name was called.

I can tell you a story about my Dad when he came home during the war. (He was short-sighted and never made it as a navigator). The sirens went off and we were all anxiously rushing to the shelter. My Mum was calling my Dad to hurry up. 鈥淲here have you been?鈥� She asked. 鈥淚 was looking for my slippers鈥�, was the answer. We thought that was courageous.

My uncle, Ronnie May, my Dad鈥檚 brother was so keen to become a navigator that he flew over Berlin as a bombardier. The plane crashed in fog over Norfolk on the way back after his first mission and he was lost. I have a lovely photograph of Jack and Ronnie May taken on their last holiday together in Brankscombe near Bournemouth during one of the only breaks we had during the war.

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