大象传媒

This account was taken by Denis Price of The 大象传媒 People's War Team from Bob Cross of Brough at the 大象传媒 bus, Driffield Showground.

I was five when the war began and living with my family near Colchester ,Essex. We had about four acres of land on which we grew everything we could so I suppose we were completely self sufficient. What we didn't have we bartered with others so everybody was happy, it was the way of things then.
I remember being as young as six, setting snares to catch rabbits, on our land of course, although as there wasn't much of a fence between us and our neighbours you can guess I wasn't too particular at that age. Dad, who worked at his garage, would sell them at one shilling and threepence each.
Before I went to school each morning, which was at Great Bentley, I had to milk six goats before I left home.
As well as his sideline of selling rabbits from his garage, Dad would repair and build bikes to sell on to the GI's based at nearby Boxford Airfield which is where my elder sister Maud, who was in the Women's Land Army, met her future GI husband. She now lives in San Jose, California, a far cry from Essex!
As I said, as a small boy it was all very exciting, I remember going to school one morning at Great Bentley to find our playground covered in earth. A German bomber was being chased by one of ours so he'd got rid of his bombs and dropped them on an allotment next to the school playground. The explosion had blown all the soil onto our playground.
My brother who was in the RAF was stationed at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk where he operated the FIDO system which burnt off lots of gas to help clear bad weather from the airfield and indicate where it was for our aircraft to land if they were damaged. or just lost.
As I've already said, at that age it was all exciting stuff to me and something I'll never forget.

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