大象传媒

Sisters Vera and Vicki lived at Woking in Surrey, not far from Aldershot. They always knew when something was up due to increased lorry movements in the area. Their father and two other sisters worked in a parachute factory. Parachutes came back blood stained, to be cleaned and repaired for further use.

Vera was a land girl, remembering Italian POWs working in the area. She also helped entertain the troops, making costumes out of parachute fabric. She also sometimes went out with her father on his air raid warden duties. She was not as afraid as she thought she'd be; getting used to it with a fatalistic streak. Mother and the rest of the family went down to the shelter though.

Vicki was struggling to bring up her young son after her husband was killed at Anzio; he being in the Scots Guards. In his final pay packet there was a deduction of 7/6d. This was charged for the blanket in which he had been buried in.

As Woking was an important railway junction, after Dunkirk it was extremely busy with troop trains. The first batch of returning soldiers were French. "Where were our boys?" Everyone was in a very sorry state. The wounded still had their battlefield dressings, if that. The sisters gave out tea and other refreshments. In return the troops handed out messages on bits of paper asking if they could be forwarded to their families to "let them know we're OK".

On a visit to London the sisters went to a Chinese restaurant in Soho for a meal. All the waiters had ponytails, but when the first V2 rocket landed nearby, they all disappeared, leaving the customers to fend for themselves. Being rather shaken up, they went to "The George" in Dean Street for a drink. Suddenly there was a commotion with blood all over the place. A blackmarketeer had had his throat cut.

(PK)

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