大象传媒

The author of this story has agreed that it can be entered on the 大象传媒 website

Escape from Chatham to the Bombs.

I have to speak of my father first:

When war broke out my father was too old to be called up but he volunteered. The soldiers called him granddad. They taught him to fire Ak Ak guns then sent him to recruit Africans (the Africans didn鈥檛 mind the uniform but hated the boots, they carried them around their necks). He was allowed to write to us and said he tried to teach the ladies to feed the babies with a spoon. The ladies laughing and carried on stuffing handfuls of food into the babies鈥� mouths.

He refused promotion from private because he didn鈥檛 want responsibility of sending young men into danger.

His unit (with the Africans I suppose) was sent to Assam where they fought the Japanese in the jungle. Led by General Slim (I think), they were called the lost army because communications broke down.

We did not enjoy the VE celebrations very much because he was still fighting and in danger.

When he came home he seemed to get drunk very easily. We thought he was an alcoholic and was treated for that but really he had a clot or damage in his brain and he died rather young.

I lived in Chatham, Kent, near the railway line from London to the coast. I remember waking each morning, my brother and I got up ready for school. My mother was doing my father鈥檚 work in our newsagent & tobacconist shop. She sorted out papers for the boys to deliver around town and served the dockyard workers with their tobacco. Later my auntie took over while our mum gave us breakfast and walked us to school.

Bombers flew over Chatham on the way to bomb London. We had to shelter because we didn鈥檛 know if they would bomb Chatham with a dockyard (they never did). Apparently they wanted to use the railway line and the road from the coast to London.

The whole school was evacuated on mass to Newington. My brother and I were billeted to a family living near the paper mills! I developed asthma and they removed my tonsils while I was there. Mum decided to get us home.

When the bombers going to London were replaced by Doodlebugs 鈥� V1s and V2s (flying bombs), my mother decided to send us to stay with my father鈥檚 cousin in a village 鈥� Clydach, Wales, near Swansea.

We were alright there. I don鈥檛 know how long, I learnt to speak Welsh and sang Welsh hymns. Then Swansea was flattened with bombs and we went home.

My mother hated my Welsh accent and would not let me sing the Welsh hymns.

By this time I was a nervous, shy, girl, terrified of the schoolboys. My grandfather paid for me to go to prep class at the grammar school a year before scholarship level. In that year the rules changed and we had to pass the scholarship to stay in the grammar school. Luckily I passed and stayed at the school.

Our house was on a very steep hill and the authorities didn鈥檛 want us to have the usual shelter. They said we would be safest sleeping in the cellar. Mum cleaned it as well as she could and emulsioned the walls. We slept there one night. She woke up to find a mouse on her pillow and so we moved upstairs again. We were given a big steel table with wire mesh around it like a cage. One night we were sleeping in it and we smelt burning.

Mum went off to look around the house. She had wrapped an old sock around a light bulb to stop wardens shouting. 鈥淧ut that light out鈥�. As they tried to keep towns completely dark. It was smouldering.

We had various people billeted on us. The front room was used as their bedroom. I remember two Irish nurses who came to work in Chatham hospital. They were good fun. I also remember a Canadian doctor and his wife. I also remember the seaside with steel scaffolding across the beach to stop landing crafts.

I survived, passed every exam presented to me, and went to university. I later worked as a scientist, making and testing polio vaccine.

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