大象传媒

These memories have been transcribed from an interview held at Gillingham Library, Kent, on July 7th., 2005.

Air raids

As I remember, the bombing always seemed to happen on Sundays, while my mother was making the lunch. She would run into the Anderson shelter, sometimes holding an apple pie she had baked. The shelter had very uncomfortable bunks and lots of spiders. It took up a good space in our garden, but it was said to be safer than the Morrison, which was fixed underneath the living room table in people鈥檚 houses.

My three uncles, (all in the RAF,) came to visit us sometimes. David was stationed in Egypt, and the others also abroad somewhere. They were very worried about us, saying we were sitting ducks with all the aircraft going over, but when the bombs dropped, Uncle David rushed into the shelter, and then came up shamefaced, while we stood watching the sky. My brother went looking for the shrapnel that came down, some of it still warm. I didn鈥檛 really know what it was.

The other bombs were incendiaries, 鈥渄oodlebugs鈥� and rockets. I think it was the rockets that came straight down when the engine cut out, and once when that happened, I saw that my father was frightened, which he had never shown before.

Food shortages

We were deprived of sweets as children 鈥� I don鈥檛 remember having any until the old lady who had a shop at the top of our road got hold of some ice cream and a few Mars bars. She would cut these into the smallest slices possible, and sell them that way.

I suppose that we had enough to eat, although I can鈥檛 remember much about it, except for the dried egg powder, which I loved in an omelette. Sometimes we went to the British restaurant. The food seemed to be mainly pies 鈥� it was nice though. My father grew potatoes, but I don鈥檛 remember any other vegetables.

Daily Life

My brother, who is five years older than me, loved to go out with the local boys, and when he was late home one night, my mother and father were quite frantic, with the bombs dropping all round. My father found him locked in a bin used for sand to put out fires 鈥� he was quite small for his age, and the others had locked him in there. We had thought he had been hit by a bomb.

My aunt who lived with us at the time, worked on munitions during the day, and then had to be an air raid warden at night. It was compulsory for women to do work I believe. One night she went out with a neighbour with their tin hats on 鈥� they came back in a panic as soon as the bombs and guns started.

I went to school when I was four years old, and as far as I can remember, we did not lose much schooling due to the war, as the raids were mainly at night, and of course on Sundays!

The end of the war

On VE Day we went up to London on the train, and saw the Royal Family, from a distance. When we came back, there was a party going on in the street called a victory party.

Just after the war ended, a lot of Dutch refugees came over to England, and some stayed in Dartford. I made friends with Henny, and kept in touch with her for many years. They hadn鈥檛 had any proper food and had been eating tulip bulbs. She was very pretty and came from Utrecht. She had a coat which I really liked 鈥� big checks. I found out later that it was made from an army blanket. They were very poor and had been literally starving. My family could not have one to stay with us as they were Catholics and we were not, so Henny and later Betsy stayed with our friend. They were always round at our house to play and to see my parents and brother. Henny鈥檚 father wrote to me when she went back to Holland.

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