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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Berkshire on behalf of Iver Lyne and has been added to the site with his permission. Iver Lyne fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Three days before the war, my dad was in the TA. The police took him off the street when he was on his way home from work. He went off to war. He came home to say goodbye as his uniform was at home. He went all over the place. He started to train officers. There was a barracks near us - Devonshire regiment. I didn’t see him much till the war finished. From time to time he came home. I was ten at the time.

The next thing I remember was the Exeter blitz that took place in May 1942. I was living in Burnt House lane and it nearly did!

My mother had six children, I was the youngest boy. The chap next door who was in the AA took us to their outdoor shelter. The bombing went on for several nights. In the shelter, the chap next door smoked a pipe so I had to go out for fresh air after a bit. I went and sat in the outside loo. I couldn’t stand the smoke, and was wondering where all our spitfires were. I could hear the bombing, you can’t imagine what it was. It sounds like thunder but about ten times worse. Just before dawn we heard machine guns and I thought the spitfires had finally got up amongst them. What we discovered in the morning was that the Germans had run out of bombs and were firing on people in the street. When we went back in the house at Breakfast time my brother, Kenneth who was six years older than me was running. He was a messenger boy for the fire service so had been called out. He came back after 3 days. He used to run in and out in between the bombs, he was very brave. He had hat and a band on his arms.

The Exeter blitz was a reprisal raid for us having bombed Dresden.

Our house was intact, then, on one raid, a bomb dropped 100 yards down the road. A rock flew into my sister’s bedroom, but she was all right. My mum then took me and my sisters to the Isle of Man as evacuees. My brothers joined up. My eldest sister, June was in the Wrens.

In 1942 my mother decided to bring us over from Exeter to the Isle of Man, after the Exeter Blitz. So my mother took me to my new school at 9.15, she left me there so I crept into the assembly hall of my new school, where I was spotted by the Headmaster, who said, ‘come here boy, you’re late’. He told me to bend over and gave me six of the best with a whippy cane. When I went home and told my mother she was furious and went up the school. The Headmaster didn’t realise I was a new boy and should have started at 9.30.

Coming home from the Isle of Man in 1943, we sailed from Douglas to Fleetwood. We were still out to sea and on the horizon I thought I could see a submarine telescope so I shouted out ‘submarine, submarine!’. Everybody panicked and then someone said ‘That’s Blackpool Tower on the horizon.’ I’d never heard of Blackpool tower till then.

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