大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the 大象传媒 Learning Centre on behalf of David Mannock, from Gloucester, with his permission.

When the war ended it was almost my fourth birthday in August 1945. I have a few memories and these I鈥檒l share with you.

I can remember my father wearing his Home Guard uniform and all his equipment including his Sten gun, sub machine gun. Of him coming home from duty soaked to the skin and after taking all his wet clothes off sitting but the kitchen fire wrapped in towels and drying off and with a large steaming mug of tea to drink.

There was one sunny afternoon and quite suddenly my mother grabbed me and rushed to hide her and me behind coats that were hung up on the back of the kitchen door. There was a funny buzzing noise and in the far distance there was a muffled sort of bang. I must have looked alarmed as mother told me not to worry as it was only Jesus throwing his toys around. At the time we lived in the western suburbs of London.
Years later I realised that mother had done her best to protect me from one of the V1 flying bombs if it had landed anywhere near us.

As a family we used to sleep under the Morrison shelter which had been erected in the front bedroom of our bungalow. These shelters were a steel framework with a strong steel sheet over the top.
My parents had their mattress under it with their bed made up ready for the night. They would put me to bed in my cot and when I was fast asleep they would lift the cot mattress out and put it under the shelter when they went to bed themselves. In the early morning I would wake up and jump up and down making the steel sheet bang against the steel frame making a terrific noise. They must have cursed me under their breaths on Sunday mornings.

My father used to put up the 鈥淏lackout鈥� every evening. As he was a handy sort of chap he had made shutters which he clipped into place on the outside of the windows around the bungalow and in the mornings take them down again.

I can remember the general election in July 1945. It was a typical English summer鈥檚 day, dull and chilly. The polling station was in a small hut at the end of a parade of shops, I never saw it used for anything else after that. One of the officials there tried to explain to me what was happening while my parents went to vote. He should have saved his breath.

During the summer of 1945 the beaches were opened to the public again, the land mines and barbed wire had been removed. So it was deemed a treat for us to go to Bournemouth for a holiday and my parents could take me on the beach and make sand castles.

I remember the weather wasn鈥檛 that good then again. I can clearly remember all the seaside piers that had been blown up to prevent enemy troops landing. After the war local councils had to repair them.

One day when my mother was pushing me to the shops in my push chair there was a lot of excitement amongst the shoppers. A German submarine had sailed into the Port of London to surrender. Everyone wanted to go and see it.

There were German and Italian P.O.W.s in the area. There was a large P.O.W. camp for Italians along the A40 going into London at Greenford in Middlesex. After the war they while they were waiting for repatriation, they were free to walk about and were a common sight.

I don鈥檛 remember VE Day, but I do certainly remember VJ Day. It was a beautiful summer鈥檚 day and there was a street party with tables arranged along the road loaded with food and drinks of all descriptions. Everyone in the road was seated at these tables and eating and drinking happily. There was a photographer from the local paper taking pictures and I had my picture in the paper.
My father made orange squash in a galvanised bath and served it to all who wanted it. He also brought my garden slide out into the road and let all the local children have a go on it.

Later people were doing the conga up and down the road and having a fun sports session. We lived at a crossroads and when it was dark a bonfire was lit there, musical instruments or gramophones provided music for people to dance around the fire late into the night.

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