大象传媒

This story was submitted to the people's war site by a volunteer (Jane Barnes) on behalf of Mr peter Speechley and has been added to the site with his permission. mr peter Speechley fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was 4 years of age when WW2 started.
I remember being upset that in 1938 I was issued with a Standard gas mask instead of "funny looking gas mask". As part of the War effort,I remember our iron railings being cut down at home,workman removing scrap metal from the roof of a shed threw a piece down which cut my head open. I also remember ration books, queueing for food and my mother buying two dozen chicks to ensure the family had eggs and meat. My Aunt in South Africa sent a box of nectarines, which I had never seen before.

I started school in Spring 1940 and was sent to a school a mile away from home. I had to walk to and from school each day and I also went home at lunch times. This meant I walked 4 miles a day.If there was an air raid , during the journey, I would always go home. This meant that I was often outside when there were air raids.

I remember at Infant school practising gas attacks and air raid drills. We marched to the under ground air raid shelters, which were in the schoolplaying fields.

I remember, when playing in Wood End Park school playing fields, seeing twirling vapour trails of aircraft fighting during the Battle of Britain. I remember being knocked down by a cyclist during the black out, running half a mile to a downed Barrage balloon and giving reading lessons to the chickens.
In September 1940 the family started staying in the public air raid shelter, which was at the Connaught recreation ground in Hillingdon Heath. On the night of 26th September 1940 there was an almighty explosion!. A parachute mine,(containing a ton of explosive) had hit a tree, near the shelter. The force of the blast was so stronge that it blew off the escape hatch at the very end of the shelter and it would have taken a lot of force to do this. If the trajectory of the mine had been different , it would have killed us all. After this happened ,we had to stay there in the dark and the dust ,until the ARP man said we could come out.He said that the mine had exploded up in a tree, if it had exploded on the ground " We would have had it".The mine caused extensive damage to our house, which was 150 yards away from the shelter. The heavy plaster ceiling in the house and door and window frames were blown in. The beams were all badly damaged.The slates from the roof were also blown off. I remember my dog Rover, my 1st birthday present from my dad, cowering under the table on broken glass and crockery,he was out of his mind.
After this my dad built an underground reinforced shelter with bed frames.
On the 29th November 1940, before he had a chance to finish the underground shelter, our house took a direct hit ,by an incendiary bomb and my father's bedroom was burnt out.
Christmas 1940 was spent in my father's underground shelter. my father brought a Morrison Shelter, so my younger sister,and I would sleep in it. The morrison shelter, doubled up as a dining table .We used to play a game to take our minds off the war called Crown & Anchor, where we gambled money. To this day ,I still have the board for this game.
We lived on high ground and we could see London buring each night. The sky would be red at night,even though ,London was 15-20 miles away.
When we were at junior School, we were told by one of our most formidable teacher's that she would "Give Hitler what for" and we believed her!. We were also told that if the Germans were to invade, we were to attack them with suitable weapons , like a garden fork!. I have memories of travelling through London to Elephant and Castle and seeing terrible bomb damage! I remember seeing a fuselage leaving a factory opposite our house. I also saw the Polish army camped in the woods in Iver Buckinghamshire.
Bombing raids became quite rare, until V1 flying bombs "doodlebugs" from June 1944. I saw one pass over our garden, going towards Harrow.
On the 7th December 1944 at 8.08pm there was a great explosion.! A V2 rocket had crashed into Hayes End recreation ground. 300 yards from our home. It devestated some bungalows and a man was killed in this explosion. I visited a captured U-Boat at Westminster Bridge.
VE Day 1945 we had a playground victory party. There was dancing in the streets and we had hung out Great war or coronation flags.

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