大象传媒

At the start of the war I (Fred) was 10 years old and I lived with my family at 10a Market Street, Falmouth, Cornwall. We lived on the 3rd floor, above a fruit shop and dog meat shop. My family consisted of my father Jack (who was a Master Rigger, trained at the ex Trinity House, working at Falmouth Docks), my mother Hilda, my brother Roy (aged 15 and in the Merchant Navy), and my sisters, Maud (aged 14 who was in service working in hotels), Evelyn (aged 12) and Molly (aged 4).

We had 3 soldiers of the 5th Commando's billeted with us. They used to go on raids from which one of them didn't return. They also went on manoeuvres and sometimes stayed away for days. Early one morning, at around 3 am, there was a lot of banging on the stair-well leading to our third floor flat. When my father opened the door, he froze. He thought that the Germans had invaded. Eventually a voice said, "For Christ sake Jack, let us in"! It was our two soldiers back from manoeuvres. They really looked a dirty, dishevelled pair.

Every time Plymouth was being bombed, we also had Air Raid Sirens. After a while, we became complacent and stayed in bed as the safest shelter to where we were was all the way down on the ground floor, under the stairs. One night we were bombed, and my Mum and Dad's window was blown out. We all rushed down under the stairs then. When the anti-aircraft firing had stopped, and all was quiet, we decided to go out and see what damage had been done. My mum was wearing slippers, and was gingerly picking her way through the broken glass etc, but then the bomber came back and she was the first one back home! After a time my Father decided that we would be just as safe in one of the toilets, which, because of the construction of the house, was closer to the ground floor level.

During one of the raids on Plymouth, my dad climbed onto our roof to see the flames. I had joined him, when a plane came over Falmouth and dropped his bombs. Hearing the hiss and then whistle of the bombs coming down , my dad said 鈥淕et close to the chimney breast鈥�. Looking back, I realise that being on the roof of a third storey building, clinging to a chimney breast was not a safe place to be. One bomb landed, as the crow flies, about 录 of a mile away in the centre of a road. On the footpath was a concrete shelter, with residents inside. The blast of the bomb went over the shelter and it tilted over into the crater with everyone inside being safe.

Around this time, my brother Roy was due to join a ship in Cardiff. It was the day before his 16th birthday and my mother was adamant that she wanted him at home for it. Roy insisted on going to his ship, so when he left home my mother contacted the Merchant Navy and begged them to send him home for his birthday. Luckily for Roy he was refused on the ship because of our mother鈥檚 wishes. The following day we heard that all hands were lost after it was attacked by E-boats.

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