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This story has been written onto the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War site by CSV Storygatherer Louise Smith on behalf of Bernard Noel Boothby. The story has been added to the site with their permission and Bernard Noel Boothby fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

I was nine years old and can remember the state of apprehension as the war clouds gathered and we frequently tried on our gas masks.

My father, being a butcher, was responsible for the meat supplies to people registered with him, in the St Thomas part of Exeter. He had to carefully weigh out the small pieces of meat, in accordance with the ‘points’ they could produce from their ration books. One day a German plane flew low over Cowick Street, spraying it with machine gun fire. I was in the street and ran into my father’s shop taking shelter in the huge iron freezer storing meat carcasses. It was extremely cold, but a refuge from the bullets.

Large areas of park were planted in the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign, and one year there was such a good crop of parsnips that we had them every day for five weeks.

A great moment was the parade of survivors of the badly battered HMS Exeter after the great victory at the Battle of the River Plate. The shell-torn battle ensign was later hung in the Guildhall.

Due to manpower shortages in the land our class had to go out to farms for ‘spud-picking’ for which we were paid one shilling a day. Paper was very scarce and we had to use our notebooks by writing in pencil and when the book was full we re-used it by working out our ‘sums’ in ink over the pencil writing. One school dinner included chocolate semolina from a box which said ‘A gift from the people of Canada’. What a joy to taste chocolate. I wish I had been ale to thank them.

At the time of the great aerial blitz on Exeter, we had to go up to the top of Redhills, which was open country then, and sleep under the hedges to avoid the onslaught. I recollect Fore Street being packed, from side to side, with hose reels as the firemen drew water from the River Exe. King George the 6th and Queen Elizabeth came too share the city’s pain and we were alone as they passed on Borhay Road. I cheered excitedly as they passed and was really thrilled when the King saluted me.

Because the bombs had fractured the gas pipes I had to take the family dinners, in baking tins, to the local bakers who had coal fired ovens. There the meals were cooked and I had to put warm covers over them and take them home.

At Dawlish Warren, there were masses of anti-tank obstructions to prevent the Germans landing, but we were still able to go down on the steam trains from Exeter and play in the dune slacks. One day some American troops invited me to go out to sea in one of their DUKWs — amphibious vehicles which could come in from water and drive over the sand onto land. They practiced heading for the shore and going up cleared areas in preparation for D-Day. Every time I see films about D-Day I think of the bravery of these men storming the beaches.

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