大象传媒

My story begins on a Sunday evening in the Spring of 1941. I was walking across Victoria Park in Leicester with my parents and brother. I was eleven years old. My brother was in the R.A.F. and a rear gunner on a Wellington bomber. He had been home on weekend leave and we were on our way to the Railway station to see him off. Even at my young age, I knew that I may never see him again.

Some weeks later, walking down my road, I saw in the distance a telegraph boy on his bike delivering to my house. I ran home and my mother was standing in the doorway. The telegram said "missing in action". We just hugged each other - we could not speak.

Weeks went by and there was no news. We began to lose hope and I remember the sadness in my home. My parents never smiled - all the fun had gone and there was nothing I could do for them.

Months went by and then a miracle! My brother's name and number were read out on the radio by "Lord Haw Haw". Our phone rang all day - people had heard it and 'phoned us with the news.

We learnt later that his plane had been shot down over the sea and he had survived on a rubber dinghy. He was in Stalag Luft 3 in Germany.

After school, I used to help pack Red Cross parcels with my mother at Bishops House on London Road, hoping that my brother would get one.

Just before the end of the war in Europe I arrived home from school and there he was. At first I didn't recognise him. He had scars, a shaven head and looked so thin and old. He was like a stranger to me. He had escaped and made it to the American lines. They had given him clothes as he had been hiding in sewers and ditches as he travelled through Germany. Then we hugged and I knew it was him.

Although I was just a child when this happened I remember it really clearly and am so thankful that my story had a happy ending.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jenni Hern of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Barbara Gwinnett and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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