大象传媒

This is Mrs Eshelby's story; it has been added by Herts Libraries, with permission from the author, who understands the terms and conditions of adding her story to the website.

The People鈥檚 War

I was 15 when war was declared, and while we listened to the news on the radio, the sirens sounded! We were all nervous expecting to be bombed at any minute, but it was a false alarm. Apparently there had been an unidentified plane, which was, in fact, friendly.

I was youngest of a family of 3 boys and 4 girls, living in Kent. The eldest boy, George, had been apprenticed as a carpenter, so was immediately sent away to repair bomb damage, a reserved occupation. Next came Jack, who was a lorry driver, but was soon called up into he Royal West Kent Regiment. Fairly soon he was made Lance Corporal, but before he had time to realise his responsibilities, he and a couple of mates took a walk together and happened upon a large house that had been bombed. It was empty, and bigger than anything they had seen, so they looked in through the damaged wall and were dazzled by the 鈥榗lassy鈥� furnishings. They were not thieves, but some bottles of wine seemed like an invitation鈥� They were arrested later, each with a half-empty bottle, and accused of looting. The case went to court and the Magistrate decided that the Lance Corporal was responsible for the actions of 鈥榟is men鈥�. Jack went to jail, you might say because he had a stripe! He served his time, and was out in time for Dunkirk. He was sent to France to drive out the German Army, which the French were sure would never get past the Maginot Line. Unexpectedly, they marched around it! They took over France, and our men had to retreat to the coast.

At Dunkirk they all lay on a sandy beach, while German Bombers flew along the back of the beach machine-gunning the troops, then flew along the front of the beach doing the same. To avoid wearing out the seat of his pants dodging bullets, Jack looked around and spotted a rowing boat along the beach. Quickly recruiting seven companions, he led the way to the boat, which they dragged towards the sea, to find an officer joining them. 鈥淣o more room鈥� said Jack, but the officer replied 鈥淚鈥檝e got a compass!鈥� so they took him along, launched the boat and started rowing. Luckily they were picked up by one of the small boats from the English coast, and came home minus their guns, but unhurt.

Meanwhile the next brother, Bert, joined the Navy. His job was convoying ships across the Atlantic and back. One time, when Bert was fast asleep below, their ship was torpedoed! Bert had to race the incoming seas to the lifeboat station, and had only just enough time to get away from the sinking boat. For the rest of the war Bert, with a blanket, slept on the top deck! And he came home safe.

According to the Royal West Kents. Hundreds of dead German soldiers were washed ashore in Kent. Was this an invasion interrupted by our submarines. We never heard any mention of this. Meanwhile, the war drew noisier! German planes tried, and sometimes succeeded in bombing London. A friend and myself, out walking her dog, found a new shed in a field. We went to investigate and were welcomed by 3 soldiers in charge of a barrage balloon, large and silvery, not unlike a flying elephant whose trunk had become a third ear! We stayed there long enough to eat a bacon sandwich (worth waiting for since we were all rationed) and went home feeling safer, having been told there would be many more balloons to keep the Germans at bay! As well as balloons, the German planes had to deal with British fighter planes. In our area they came from Biggin Hill, and I often sat in the garden shelling peas or whatever other job was movable, and watching dog-fights take place overhead! The only snag was that when the Germans were defeated, hey often dumped their bombs nearby, since they could not take them to London. But we survived.

Finally, the Germans used V1s. My sister and I watched them on the first night. It seemed to us that they were all on fire! In fact they had no pilots, and the fire was the jets that brought them across the channel. We soon learned that they were utterly predictable! First the fire went out(and the engine stopped) then the nose dipped. When we saw one do this, we ran fast in the opposite direction. Without a pilot they could not follow us, and the land behind them was perfectly safe! We were, by now, well used to air raids, and only took shelter if we knew real bombers were up there. Next came the V2s, rockets that fell randomly all around Kent. These gave no warning at all, so you either lived the rest of your life in a shelter (which might be blown up, anyway) or you took a chance! One of them hit my Aunt鈥檚 house, killing her and her husband and leaving my cousin lying unconscious on a neighbour鈥檚 shed roof.

We had an Anderson shelter in our garden, put up by George, who gave it a wooden floor, and steps at the entrance. The snag was, you could hear rats and cockroaches scratching about under the floor, and the door wasn鈥檛 awfully useful. One night a toad came in and sat on the stairs. My nightie was no protection against jumping creatures, and I wasn鈥檛 sure whether toads could jump, so I stayed in the shelter till Mum, who had climbed out over the toad, came back and removed it. After we slept under the table (solid mahogany, with legs 20鈥� in diameter) in the living room, and in due course, won the war!!!

During all this time I worked for the Ministry of Labour & National Service., registering and calling up everyone we could lay hands on. I volunteered endlessly for the WRNS but to no avail 鈥� I was 鈥榬eserved鈥�!

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