大象传媒

When I was 7 years of age in 1941, the bombing in Cardiff was very intense. So my mother decided that my younger brother and I would be evacuated. My father was at sea in the Merchant Navy and my mother had to work in Currans making munitions. We were evacuated to Abertridwr staying with the Nelmes family. I remember Mrs Nelmes baking her own bread and they kept chickens. Mr Nelmes was a miner. They had two older children, the girl was O.K. but Bruce was a little bully. For entertainment, he would make me fight with my brother which I hated. I was very homesick, though my mother did come and visit us.
One day when school finished, instead of walking back to the house I walked and walked until I reached Caerphilly. I eventually found the bus station and boarded the Cardiff bus, I sat in the front and told the conductor that my mother was at the back. When I arrived in Cardiff, some kind lady gave me a penny for the tram ride to Canton. When I reached my home it was in darkness, my mother was on the 2-10 shift at Currans. I knew the back window had a faulty catch and if I kept tapping, it would open. After gaining entry, I fell asleep in the chair. My mother found me when she returned home, she then walked me down to the Canton police station to report my arrival. they phoned the Abertridwr police and they said I had just been reported missing. My mother decided it would be better if we both stayed in Cardiff, so she collected my younger brother. I well remember the three of us being huddled under the stairs during air raids, though we did have a damp, cold Anderson shelter in the back garden.
After one very heavy air raid we did go to see my Aunt who lived in Paget Street. The house was just a pile of bricks. Fortunately, my Aunt and her children were in the steet shelter.
In November of the following year the Padre from the Missions to Seamen called to say that my father's ship was sunk by a U-boat and that he was missing. For many months we hoped that we would hear that he had survived, but good news never arrived.
Recently, I have found that the U-boat that sank my father's ship in the Mediterranean was the same U-boat that had sunk the "Ark Royal" aircraft carrier. The U-Boat captain survived the War and became an Admiral in the German Navy and a top official in NATO.

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