大象传媒

When the war broke out I was exactly 13 and a half years old and just about to change schools from the little village primary mixed school. To do this, I had to walk two miles to my previous school and then take a coach into Hertford, another two miles away. My little brother was three years old. We were all issued with gas masks and the ones for very small children were shaped like Mickey Mouse. However, he was too big for one of these and still too small for a full-size gas mask.
In our village, the warning sign for gas attacks was the village bells and when this happened one day, I remember my father making all of us put on our gas masks and get under the kitchen table. I also remember being scared stiff. We were there for quite a while, but it was a false alarm and I think that was the only time we ever put on our gas masks!!

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