大象传媒

I was in Warwick in October 1935 and lived there for the duration of the war.
My first memories are at the age of 5 when I remember taking my gas mask to school carrying it in a cardboard box.
I remember the daylight raids starting on Coventry and Birmingham. When the siren went we were told to keep to the hedge row
and keep out of open spaces which was difficult as we had to cross a park to get home. During the blitz on Coventry when the sirens went we would be carried downstairs half asleeep to sit on the cella stairs as we didn't have a shelter. When the all clear was sounded we would go out to the back garden and watch the glow in the night sky over Coventry. The house that we lived in backed onto a market garden and beyond that was the G.W.R, which ran along the embankment. Beyond the railway was apowere station, which was an obvious target.
Being a sickly child and suffering from tonsillitis I could not have them removed until 1943 as Warwick hospital was being used foe wounded soldiers.
Often we would see the Red Cross trains coming up from the South and we wave to the soldiers with dusters and tea clothes.. One lasting memory of the Coventry Blitz was the morning after seeing people in some cases whole families pushing all there possessions on a cart or pram. One incident I remember very vividly was one lunchtime in broad daylight we heard a plane flying low over the house and as children we went outside to wave to the pilot and we were intrigued to see the bomb door opening underneath the aircraft. At that point my Grandmother arrived on the scene and immediately sent us inside for cover as this was a German bomber. Fortunately the incendiary bomb landed in the slag heap of the power station and did not go off, other bombs were reported to have dropped in the fields next to Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Factory , which was involved in war work.
I can also remember in the latter years of the war all the children at school being issued with tins of dried egg powder and chocolate powder. I can also remember fetcjing the meat ration when each member of the family had10d worth of fresh meat and 2d worth of corned beef. There used to be queues for things like offal and fresh fish. Bread was delivered by horse and trap and the greengrocer had a horse and cart. Any scrap food was saved and given to the local man who kept chickens and a pig in exchange for eggs and bacon, when the time came, and the garden was dug up to grow vegetables.
My final memory of the war was on VE day in the evening when peace was declared, being dragged out of bed and being taken by my older sisters and taking part in a candlelit procession through the town.

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