大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jenny Ford on behalf of Mr. Michael Sparshott and has been added to the site with his permision. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

"I was two years old in 1939. I was one of a family of eight living in Gosport. We lived near Grange Airfield and an UK aeroplane was on fire and it crashed and all on board were killed.

We had a communal shelter at the bottom of our street. My dad was in the Home Guard. We were all in the shelter and my sister was on the toilet. My father challanged whoever was in there and because she did not answer he was going to shoot whoever it was! We had quite a lot of bombing and two doors away from us two houses were taken out.

There were German POWs stationed at St.Vincent's, Gosport, a camp of nissen huts. They were there to build pre-fabricated houses.

The garden of our home backed onto 'Fleetlands', a repair factory. If the sirens went sometimes had to fight to get under the table. We could hear V1s and the engine stopping, they were after the shipping.

At school we used a brick shelter and we sat in the dark talking and scared. At school, towards the end of the war, we watched the ships being loaded up for 'D' Day landing. Armoured vehicles stretching 3-4 mies along the main roads.

We played locally and it was a close community. I remember a barrage balloon broke away from its moorings and was brought down over our houses. We made a canoe from the wooden frame and canvas which gave us a lot of pleasure.

I remember Sunday mornings queuing up for sweets at the local corner shop. I didn't have much to eat and was hungry. We went to a local copse for wood, cutting it up for firewood during the bad winters.

We had a street party to celebrate VE Day. After the war, during the summer, all the families in the street used to go down to the beach. They used to fill up the old tin bath with water and carry it down to the beach to boil up to make cups of tea.

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