大象传媒

During the second world war my friend Joan and I cycled to work at the Silk Factory in Oulton Broad near Lowestoft, Suffolk. We worked shifts 6a.m. - 2p.m. or 2p.m. to 10 p.m. Everyday as we approached Oulton Broad there was a barrier across the road manned by the army, and each day we were asked our identity number before being allowed to pass. 大象传媒 at the factory went on for some time and in the main we wove parachute silk and barage balloon material and I personally became responsible for 48 looms. During that time there were many air raids by the Germans on the Lowestoft area, and when an attack was expected the siren sounded as the planes came over the coast and we had to take cover in the air raid shelters provided near the factory. Later the sirens were replaced with what was called the 'cuckoo', when you heard the 'cuckoo' you had to get down the shelter pretty quick as the attack was imminent. The shelter was also used by men from the local shipyard, one day I remember I heard the enemy aircraft firing and the men in the shelter shouted me to jump and they would catch me, which they did. Many hours were spent down the shelters, and production time lost. The time really dragged by but all concerned remained cheerful. On one occasion the Germans dropped bombs on the nearby Maltings and unfortunately one of my friends lost her husband as he had returned for his newspaper, that was fate for you.
During this time my Husband Arthur, whom I had married in 1942 was abroad serving with The Royal Engineers, luckily he returned home at the end of the war, after many travels and adventures he was away from England for 3 1/2 years, he also was lucky in that twice he happened to have missed being killed by a querk of fate, and we subsequently had two children and have now been married for 63 years.

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