大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Sue Smith on behalf of Mrs Josie Longyear and has been added to the site with her permission. Josie fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.
I was living in Bristol Road in Southsea with my parents when war broke out. When the bombing started my aunt in Denmead suggested to my mother that it might be wise to move out to the country and as she knew of a house to let in the village we went out to see it. My mother and I were walking down Mead End road when a German plane suddenly appeared and swooped down the road shooting at us. My mother pulled me into the ditch and we lay there terrified as bullets flew all around us. Miraculously we were not hit and made our way back to my aunts. There were troops camped in the Forest of Bere and we assumed that was whom they were targeting. We did move to Denmead and later in the war I had another amazing escape. A group of the local children were playing conkers in a field when two German planes flew low and shot at us. They killed two cows but no children were hurt. Village life turned out to be not so safe after all.

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