大象传媒

I lived in Stoke-on-Trent and was fourteen when war broke out, having left school in the August. The weeks leading up to the outbreak of the war were uneasy and yet, somehow, it was hard to imagine that we would be at war, having heard all the stories of World War I and how terrible it had been. My father had been wounded in that war and so I heard first hand accounts of how awful it had been and I thought it could never happen again.

The Saturday before war broke out I remember going to Hanley and seeing loads of sandbags, and soldiers, all around the town. They suddenly seem to have appeared from nowhere. On Sunday, 3rd September, we were expecting an announcement from the Prime Minister, Mr.Neville Chamberlain, at 11 a.m., and so we gathered round our wireless set, in the living room, to hear the fateful words about Herr Hitler and being at war with Germany etc etc. My father's face was a study, it was grim and anxious, my mother's was the same. I felt a shiver of fear, wondering what was going to happen next. After a few exchanges about the dreadful, evil Hitler, my mother produced Sunday dinner, as usual, and said we had to go to Sunday School. She carefully wrapped our gas mask boxes in brown paper bags, to keep them clean. We had been told to take them everywhere. After Sunday School we couldn't get home fast enough, thinking we were going to be bombed.

Everything seemed to change so quickly, black-out curtains had to be put up and all lights extinguished at night. Food shortages and queues commenced. Looking back, it was amazing how we adjusted to the black-out, and doing without the food we had taken for granted for so long. My three cousins, aged 20, were called up for active service, as were lots of the men round about and it seemed that we were always saying goodbye and feeling sad.

The war continued in an uneasy way and we kept getting news of young men being killed in action. Although this period was called "the phoney war", it didn't seem phoney to us. Food rationing officially commenced in January 1940 and we really had to tighten our belts on the meagre rations.

Then in June 1940 came the terrible tragedy of Dunkirk. The entry in my diary on the 17th June said "The French have capitulated. That means were are on our own now. I am terribly worried, everyone is". On the 18th June it said"The French are seeking an armistice with the Germans. War news very serious and we are expecting invasion at any time". Air raid sirens sounded but no bombs were dropped.

In the town there were loads of French troops who were called The Fighting Free French. They had escaped from France to form this special unit and were stationed at Trentham and were helping to fight the Germans. Walking round the town was a very tall, imposing looking officer, who stood out by his bearing and we learned afterwards that it was General De Gaule. We did not realize at the time how important he would become.

On 24th June 1940 air raids started in a big way and it was the commencement of many nights in the air raid shelter. On 26th June we were awakend, at 2 a.m., by a loud noise and looking out of the window saw a big fire, in the garden. We realized that an incendiary bomb had bounced off our roof and into the garden, just missing an electricity sub station which was just outside. My father insisted that all went into our air raid shelter whilst he dealt with the bomb. We did not have phones in those days and so could not ring anyone, (unless you went to a public box which was quite a way away). My father kept on shovelling soil on to the fire, until, at last, the fire was almost out. The next day, Air Raid Wardens and Fire Officers, came to dig it up when the news got out, as it was one of the first incendiary bombs to fall on Stoke-on-Trent. My father was a hero to me, as he had been wounded in World War I, and had very little use in his right arm and yet he would not let us help in case we got hurt.

The war was to last for another five years and we experienced all sorts of events during that time, the saddest one being the loss of my cousin at Anzio. He was blown up by a mine. My brother in law was taken prisoner and was in Germany for three years. We had our good times too, Mother had soldiers billeted on us from the Military College of Science and she used to try to feed them up with rabbit pie and goodness knows what. Father used to have one of his parties on Saturday nights when my sister used to play the piano and we had a singsong. We had two Americans from Kentucky who could not believe we existed on such small rations but we had fun.

I have dedicated this contribution to my mother, father, and sister, Madge, who made those far off days so bearable.

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