大象传媒

A Teenage memories of the war.
By Joyce Hammond.

I well remember September 3rd, l939 鈥� it was a Sunday, and my parents and I listened to a broadcast on the wireless by the Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain. It was mid-morning and my older brothers were out with their friends, and my little sisters were playing in the garden. We all knew that war might be declared, but hoped that it could be avoided. I suppose I was aware of the situation because my parents had lived through The Great War and knew the dreadful things that could happen! When we were told that we were at war with Germany my mother burst into tears, and instantly started to worry about her sons who were aged l7 and l5
We lived in a bungalow on a new estate in Bexleyheath, North Kent, and this district had been declared a neutral area 鈥� that is it wasn鈥檛 dangerous enough for the children to be evacuated, and it wasn鈥檛 safe enough to receive evacuees. BUT, we were only thirteen miles from London and we were to learn months later we were on the route that enemy bombers took when they attacked the capital鈥︹��. We had already been issued with an air-raid shelter which Dad and the boys erected in our back garden. For this they had to dig a big hole about three feet deep and then erect the corrugated iron shelter, and afterwards cover it with the soil they had dug out. Dad cemented the floor, and made bunks along each side and at the back, and finished it with a wooden door. Everyone thought we would be bombed straight away, but the Germans were busy invading all the countries that faced us over the Channel, and so we had what was called a phoney war for about seven months.
I had gone back to school soon after war was declared, and found an air-raid shelter had been erected in the playground. All we girls were assembled in the hall and were told that because the shelter was not big enough for the whole school to go in it, a scheme had been worked out. Half the classes would attend for the morning, and the other half go along in the afternoon! This meant that there were no more art classes, sewing classes or P.T., and we would all have to take homework to do during the rest of the day. The idea was good, but it was difficult to struggle with French, and Algebra etc., after a brief lesson. My brothers, Doug and Jim, had both left school , and were learning to be tilers in the building trade. My sister, Pat , was aged 6 and went to the Infant School across the road. Our little sister, Jill, was only three years old. We had all been issued with Identity Cards 鈥� I can still remember my number 鈥� CJIF 33 5 鈥� the 5 being the fifth member of the family! We had also been issued with gasmasks, and these we had to carry everywhere with us. Jill was too young to wear one and so we had a 鈥榗arry-cot鈥� sized container that had to be zipped up, and a hand-pump used to give her air. As you can guess, she hated it, and thank-goodness we never had to use it!
Life was quite different for us all, for all the street lights were switched off at night, and if we wanted to go out we had to carry a torch 鈥� unless the moon was shining! There weren鈥檛 many private cars around in those days, and when petrol was rationed there were even less, but they all had to have their headlight masked so that they just showed a little illumination. At first all the theatres and cinemas were closed, but after a while they re-opened but closed fairly early in the evening. I can鈥檛 remember when rationing came in, but all mothers had to work hard to make meals with the meagre amounts of meat, fats, sugar etc.etc. that we were allowed Everyone was urged to 鈥淒ig for Victory鈥�, and new allotments were made in neighbouring patches of spare land, and parks and golf-clubs dug up their lawns and grew vegetables. Mum and Dad took on two allotments and kept us well supplied with fruit and vegetables all through the war.
For the first few months of the war everything was quiet 鈥� our soldiers and airmen were sent to France and Belgium, but the Germans had been re-arming for many years and had a huge army and air-force, whereas we had obeyed the League of Nations鈥� wish that there should be no more wars, and had not re-armed! Of course, there was a tremendous effort to build tanks, aeroplanes shells etc., and many young men were conscripted into the forces, and after their training, were sent to fight. But, the German forces were much stronger, and gradually the Allied troops were trapped in a small area of the Belgian coast! An appeal was broadcast to owners of small boats, yachts, pleasure boats, fishing boats to get in touch with the Admiralty. A little while later we were told that these little boats bravely sailed over to Dunkirk and neighbouring beaches, and under terrible gun-fire and bombing they carried men from the beach to the Navy鈥檚 ships which couldn鈥檛 get close inshore. Many thousands of men were rescued and returned to Britain 鈥� weary, wounded, but ready to fight another day!
Germany and Italy (their Ally) had conquered nearly all of Europe, and we, in Britain were the only country left to fight against the Nazi鈥檚 and Fascists. It was a terrible time for us all 鈥� we knew that Hitler was determined to invade us, but Prime Minister Winston Churchill spoke to us on the radio 鈥� he assured us that we 鈥渨ould fight in the towns, in the fields, on the beaches鈥� and in the end we would defeat the enemy. Many things happened 鈥� all the signposts were removed from town and country, and the church bells were forbidden to ring - they would only be sounded if we were invaded! Older men were encouraged to join the Home Guard 鈥� also the men in reserved occupations and boys aged 16 and over. My father, who had fought in the Army during the whole of the four years of the Great War (1914 鈥� 1918), and had been wounded twice, joined up immediately, and it wasn鈥檛 long before he was made a sergeant, and drilled the men. He had been one of the men who had been gassed during the war, and for six months he was blind, and he suffered from the damage to his lungs for the rest of his life. Never the less, he joined up and went on parade two or three times a week. These men were able to take over many duties , and guarded factories etc. and thus released 鈥榬eal鈥� soldiers for other duties. We started to see more aeroplanes in the sky 鈥� fast planes like the Spitfire and Hurricane, and occasionally a German plane would fly over, and then there would be a 鈥榙og-fight鈥�, and we would watch and cheer our planes if they managed to shoot the enemy down. Gradually, more and more enemy planes came over, and by September the fighting became known as 鈥淭he Battle of Britain鈥�. Hitler wanted to bomb all our air-fields so that our planes could not take off 鈥� once that was done, he thought he would be able to invade. But his plan went astray, for our fighter-pilots proved superior. So his next plan was to bomb our towns!
In late September, my mother took my two sisters and I to visit an Aunt who lived deeper in Kent 鈥� near Maidstone. We had all got quite used to air-raid warnings and planes above us, and only went to our air-raid shelters if we heard gun-fire. But, one Saturday afternoon, when out walking near the river Medway, we heard the sound of aircraft guns and then, when we looked up we saw a huge block of large aircraft - bombers- hundreds of them in formation, and the sound of their big engines sent shivers through our spines. We stood watching, with fragments of gun shells raining down, and didn鈥檛 realise what danger we were in. The bombers were, of course, on their way to bomb London, and they did terrible damage in the docks area! That was the start of the bombing raids, and they went on for night after night. The daylight raids proved dangerous for the Germans 鈥� for many of their planes were shot down, and so they sent their bombers in the night, and when we returned from our holiday, our whole family spent night after night in our shelter in the garden. We would get up from our beds when the air-raid warning went off, put on a warm coat and hat, and take blankets and pillows in the shelter, and try to sleep until the All Clear sounded. Of course, it was often much too noisy to sleep, but thank goodness, we never suffered from the heavy bombing that the people in London (only 13 miles from us) suffered. A few months later, a stray bomber who couldn鈥檛 get through the anti-aircraft fire, dropped his load of bombs and two of them dropped on our estate. One fell in the centre of our road about four bungalows up from ours! But, fortunately, the blast went up and only blew the tiles off our roofs. The other bomb fell two roads away, and landed on one of the bungalows and a lady was killed. My father and brothers stayed home from work and replaced all our tiles, and then went and helped our neighbours.

I had left school at the end of July 鈥� aged l4 鈥� but been unable to find a job as employers seemed unwilling to take on youngsters. However, I knew I did not want to work in a shop or a factory, so kept applying for an office job. In October I was successful and started work in the head office of the local Co-operative Society based in Woolwich, London S.E. As we lived some way from the nearest bus-stop, I used my bicycle for the journey which took my three-quarters of an hour, and the last part being along side of the wall of the Woolwich Arsenal, which was where the large guns and shells were made. It was a tricky ride for the road was cobbled and I had to avoid the tram-lines which were dangerous for cyclists.

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