大象传媒

was 1 year and 1 month old when war was declared and 7 years and 1 Month when it finished. I lived in a small village in Kent called Leybourne. We were 2 miles from a fighter aerodrome at West Malling and 20 miles from London. There was a meadow in front of the house and a farm at the back. We played on the meadow and used to pick up the 'ticker-tape' silver paper dropped by planes to upset the radar readings.

Spitfires used to fly overhead very low and we could see the pilots in their cockpits looking down on us. Often they would shoot at 'doodlebugs' on their way to London to try to redirect their flight path. The droning noise of the 'doodlebugs was very memorable.

The farm at the back of the house was owned by an old spinster called Miss Johnson - she was the bane of the police and the wardens' lives- she would go out in the middle of the night with a lantern to get her herd of cows in - she wasn't very popular! We all had strict blackout at night. Our windows had white sticky tape on in case of blast from explosions and shutters were put up at night to obliterate the lights. The warden came round checking for any chinks of light, and woe betide you if you had any. A bomb was dropped on a small town a mile from us early in the am - I can remember screaming at the noise of the shutters falling into the room. I thought the house was falling down. We had an Anderson shelter in the garden but it was nearly always ankle deep in water - so we didn't use it much.

My father certainly 'Dug for Victory' - we had a very large garden with every vegetable possible plus chickens, ducks, rabbits and geese. I can't remember being hungry. We had a very good diet and no sweets. Fortunately or unfortunately the Canadian Army came to Miss Johnson's meadows at the back of our house with camouflaged anti-aircraft guns and bags of sweets and chocolate. Us children thought it was wonderful.

I remember on VE day the Church bells were ringing from the village Church and everybody seemed very happy, dancing about and singing. As my Father was in charge of a Hospital unit near our house and all the Staff and their children were invited to a wonderfull party with lots of entertainment. In the evening we had a big bonfire with an effigy of Hitler on the top and everybody sang and danced. It was a memorable day.

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