大象传媒

I was 9 when war broke out.
During an emergency period prior to this my mother, sister and I were evacuated to an aunt in Ardrishaig, Argyll, along with many cousins and we learned the fascination of being in the countryside along the Crinan Canal, collecting conkers and spiking flounders in Loch Fyne when the water was low - and no schooling!
Six weeks later we were back home. On our return we soon moved to Sighthill, a new Edinburgh housing estate - our house bordered on a farm field. One day in October 1939 my mother and neighbours were at the side of the house chatting while we played; suddenly four or five 'planes zoomed down from the Pentland Hills heading towards the Firth of Forth and the Fife coast - we all waved to them. Next day we read in the newspaper that a German 'plane had been forced down near the Forth Bridge and when interviewed the captured German pilot had said some "peasants" had waved to him!! - he was obviously being chased by our boys and we were the "peasants".
Our primary school - Murrayburn - was nearing completion and before it opened we "pupils" were educated for three mornings per week meeting in each others homes. When the school did open we soon spent some time digging allotments round the perimeter of the playground where we planted potatoes and all kinds of vegetables. We knitted (both boys and girls!) blanket strips and scarves - at home - for sending to the Forces. We boys collected all kinds of Army, Air Force and Navy Regimental badges and buttons which we attached to our belts with wire to wear round our waists.
Those were the days of blackouts, gas masks, food rationing, bread units, clothing coupons and utility furniture. Buses ran with netting glued to the windows - to prevent injury in case of bombing - and dimmed lights at night. Sweets, spam and corned beef were all luxury items when you could get them and bananas were unheard of! Queues were everywhere and I remember being out with my mother when she spotted one - we joined it not knowing what it was for and she said to me "Don't let on you know me and get whatever they are selling!!"
We had LDV's - Local Defence Volunteers - (Dad's Army) - christened the "Look Duck and Vanish" boys!
Soon we were subjected to nightly air raids (the target being Clydebank over 40 miles away but the Jerries always seemed to pass over our house!) and although we had a shelter under the stair we preferred the company of the public shelter across the road.There was one consolation however - it was a school rule that there were no classes the morning after an air raid!
A great deal of time was spent listening to the radio during wartime especially news broadcasts. Favourite programmes included Garrison Theatyre, In Town Tonight, Bandwaggon, Happidrome, "Into Battle", Vera Lynn (and her "We'll Meet Again" to which we sang "Whale Meat Again" because that's what we got at the butchers) Workers' Playtime and of course Tommy Handley's "ITMA" - "It's That Man Again" - poking fun at Hitler and the Germans to keep our spirits up. Glenn Miller and the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Force was another favourite as were the imported American programmes - Bob Hope, Fred Allan, George Burns and Gracie. I managed to obtain Glenn Miller's autograph about two weeks before he went missing in December 1944.
About half a mile from our house was an Italian P.O.W. camp and we became quite accustomed to seeing them walking in pairs to the local shops, with round patches sewn into the backs of their army jackets.
Then came the excitement of the D-Day landing invasion and the eventual VE Day celebrations when crowds flocked into Edinburgh's Princes Street - trams were constantly prevented from proceeding a few yards before their trolleys were pulled off and many folk gathered outside one hotel which housed the American service men to have sweets, chewing gum, cigarettes and fireworks thrown down from a balcony there.
After the VJ Day celebrations we had the experience of welcoming home a neighbour's son thin and jaundiced from years in a Japanese P.O.W, camp - he told me that it was his Scout traing that had helped him to survive. The following year we listened to the lengthy broadcasts of the Nuremberg Trials, the sentences given out and of learning how Goering cheated the gallows by taking cyanide.
Those were exciting days for a lad growing up in wartime but we myst also reflect on how the public morale was so very high during those dark days due mainly to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the "Bulldog", who fortunately for us was in the right place at the right time. His grandson, also Winston Churchill, said of him recently "Had it not been for Winston Churchill the whole world would now be unrecognisable" - how true.
Finally we owe a great debt of gratitude to those lads who never returned from war as summed up in John Maxwell Edwards' "Kohima Epitaph"...
When you go home tell them of us
and say For your tomorrow
We gave our today.
Went the day well?
We died and never knew
But, well or ill,
Freedom we died for you.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.