大象传媒

Memories of the War

My Family used to go to London Bridge Underground Air Raid Shelter. My father used to work at the station. One morning we were evacuated from the shelter. The reason being that when the signalman in the box outside the station pulled up the blinds, hanging on the signal swaying back and forth, was hooked a landmine. The signalman had heard a tapping sound and couldn鈥檛 make out what it was. We were walking down Tooley street which runs down from London Bridge, both sides of the street were alight, there were food warehouses on either side of the street, with the docks behind on one side, we were picking our way over the water hoses. Suddenly a fireman shouted at my mother, rushed up to her and snatched off her hat and stamped on it, sparks had landed on it and set it alight. My mother promptly fainted.

Walking home from work one evening, the air raid siren went and not being far from home, I thought I could make it home before the planes came overhead. I was running and suddenly a plane swooped low with machine guns blazing and passing a street shelter an arm shot out and dragged me into the shelter away from harm. Gave me a ticking off though.

When I was in the land army we were working in the fields a Flying Fortress came out of the clouds making its way home. One of the crew was in the Perspex nose waving his arms outward and we were all waving back. It flew the length of the field, 5 minutes later he had turned around and that鈥檚 when we could see that nearly the whole of the other side of the fuselage had been blown away. He had wanted to try and land and we thought his gestures were being friendly. Eventually they all bailed out and came down in the River Medway Estuary.

One time 3 of us were billeted with an old spinster who was pretty grim and half starved us. She went out one evening and we had discovered her food hoard. There was loads of it, so we each cut a slice off a 陆 lb of margarine and spoonful sugar and dried fruit out of each bag so hoping she wouldn鈥檛 notice it and made a bread pudding and had a feast. Nothing was said and we applied for a transfer after that.

We used to cycle about 5 miles to dances and wore dungarees under our skirts to keep warm in the winter.

One dance we went to at a Naval Camp and going up to the gate in the dark a Sentry challenged us and we replied the Land Army and he repeated friend or foe and we again said Land Army then we heard the rifle made ready to fire so of course we said Friends very quickly.

Going back form weekend leave we met up with some others and they had met up with some Americans they knew. They introduced themselves and the last one said what sounded like Earl of something. Having heard that the Yanks were a bit boastful, I said in reply oh yes and I鈥檓 the Duchess of Kent. As soon as I said it I knew I was in the wrong. Everybody fell about laughing.

In the W.L.A we turned up for work at the farm we were working at. The foreman told us to go this huge field, he turned up with some sacks to tie around or waists. This field was covered in stones and seemed to go on forever. We had to gather the stones and put them at the edges. We said he must have been joking because it was April 1st but he certainly didn鈥檛 see the joke. It nearly killed us, the field was as wide as it was long. Another time we had to stack the corn, which had just been cut, and it was the first time it had been ploughed and planted and it was very sparse. We were on piecework that was being paid so much an acre, we agreed a lower figure an acre. But when it came to being paid the foreman wanted to take our bare patches in acreage as well, meaning he was cutting the price twice. So we went on strike and told him to get lost and went home. We were all transferred elsewhere. One of my friends' father was a main line driver from London Bridge to Margate, his brother was the signalman I mentioned earlier. One morning after a heavy raid, he was driving back from Margate and the route took him past his house, his garden backed onto the line, a land mine had wiped out the street, it was flat. He wanted to stop the train to see if his family was ok and his foreman had to fight him from stopping the train. Fortunately they had been in the Anderson shelter and were ok. Normally he would have blown his whistle and Maisies Mum would have his breakfast on the table by the time he came in. imagine what a shock it must have been to find his house had been flattened.

Before I went into the W.L.A I worked in a tea packing factory called MAZAWATTEES and in one part of the building war work was going on, shell cases for incendiary bombs the factory was hit during a raid and it burned down all except the bit they were probably after. Most of us were put to work in that part, making these cases for firebombs. One day one of the men had been mixing in a giant mixer the sand and other ingredients to make the cores for the bomb case. He filled the wheelbarrow, but some stayed in the mixer and without thinking he put his hand to get the rest out. The blades were still going slowly round, and the next thing we saw were his fingers laying in the sand in the wheelbarrow. It was a really horrible sight.

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