大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jenny Ford on behalf of Mr. Charles Brian Knibbs and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Memories of Mr. Charles Brian Knibbs recorded at the VE/VJ Celebration held on Castle Mound, The Embankment, Bedford, 13th August 2005.

鈥淚 was born in 1934, I was nearly six years old when the war started.

Most of the trouble was caused during the night and you didn鈥檛 know what was coming. They used to send down bombs on parachutes. That鈥檚 when my mother considered evacuating us and that鈥檚 when we went to cousins in Gloucester, they had a farm down there and we slept in a barn. We slept in a barn with pigs and sheep because there was no where else to put us, all friends and relations had come down, they had to put us up where they could. Our schooling was disrupted.

When I came back from Gloucester, me and my brother had been put in my Gran鈥檚 house in Greenford and that鈥檚 when a bomb dropped on us. The roof came down on me and my brother. The ceiling came down, we were in bed. There was an air raid warning but there were so many people in the house that you couldn鈥檛 get in the shelters really. I remember my mum saying 鈥楽tay on the bed, don鈥檛 move about鈥� so we did. And about 100 yards away they bombed a local church and the church went, next was us and the bomb landed about 100 yards from us, blew the roof off and what was left fell on me and my brother, bricks, dirt, dust and everything. Of course mum came running up stairs to see if we were alright, we hid under the bed then, a bit late! I was about eight and my brother was about six.

The whole family was together in Greenford, that wasn鈥檛 so close to London but it was close enough. There was bombing all round us and I can remember my dad taking me out when it was 鈥楢ll clear鈥� and he took us round the shopping area and there was no shopping area left, it was just gone, all bombed. This was night time, you heard the siren go but there were so many things going on, the banging and shouting, at our age you didn鈥檛 realise what it was. You sort of listened to the noises and hoped it didn鈥檛 hit us or our mum and dad. Well my dad wasn鈥檛 there he was out on patrol as he was an ARP Warden trying to see if anybody else needed help. He used to go round on his bike telling people to put their lights out.

I can really remember all that part because it was such a horrific time for me and my brother. Eventually what happened when the war had practically stopped, they got us another place out in the country and we stayed there for a few years. Then the war was over and then we had these street parties for VE Day. We had moved back to where we had been up in a place called Uxbridge. We used to live in Uxbridge so we moved back there, the house was still standing but it needed repairing but we moved into the house in Uxbridge eventually. A lot of the members of the gangs that repaired damaged houses were killed repairing houses.

My dad fiddled a little bit of black market stuff, bags of tea and stuff like that. He used to work in an ammunition factory. They used to make stuff for the Army, shells and things. He did that until about six months after the war had finished. But he was doing something at night time, three of them walked around at night time, ARP Wardens. My dad had a bike and he used to either shout at them or knock on the door and tell them there was a light shining.

I survived the war. A lot of the family didn鈥檛 mostly through bombs and buildings falling down on them like on me and my brother. When an air raid was over they used to come round to check if everybody was alright but what they were doing really was to see if anybody had died so they could take them away. But when I look back it was a horrible time - but now that鈥檚 history.鈥�

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