大象传媒

My first recollection of the War was in 1939. My father had taken me to Weymouth to see the King reviewing the fleet in Weymouth Bay. A man in the crowd exclaimed" There will be war before not too long". A meaningless statement to me at that time, at the age of nearly six.

My next memory was to follow shortly. Playing in the garden with wireless playing at full volume, I remember the immortal words to the effect " We have this day, declared war on Nazi Germany ". Again it did not mean much to me, but the distress of my parents is still with me, particularly my father, who had been badly wounded in the 1914-1918 war and had lost 2 brohters, one on the Somme and one who died as a result of his wounds at Gallipoli.
My mother who had lost a dearly loved brother, who had served from 1914, only to die in the last week of the war to a sniper's bullet.

It was not many months later, that the War became a more tangible event to understand.

The German bombers used the hill on which we lived, as a route guide to the "fruitful" targets of the Bristol aircraft factories and farther to targets in the Midlands and the North. Our nights were punctuated with the sound of air raid hooters wailing, and the sound of many heavy aircraft engines. After they had returned, again overhead, the night skies in the distance to the north towards Bristol, or to the west towards Exeter and Plymouth,appeared to have vivid sunsets, but which were in fact the flames in the aftermath
of the bombing raids.

The nights, in common with the more stressed citizens in the large cities, were spent on a mattress under a sturdy large oak table.

A particular vivid memory, is my Father preparing to leave the house one night, telling us to stay under the tables. If we heard the Church bells ringing continually, we must lock the doors and speak to nobody. The bells were a sign that the long awaited German invasion had started. In the event they did ring for a short time, but it proved to be a false alarm.

As the war progressed, amore regular event were watching the fighter plane dog fights overhead. Despite repeated instructions from my Mother to stay indoors, because of the falling spent bullets ( or so she thought ), to a young boy it was an exciting interlude.

I particularly remember standing in a street waiting for a bus, when to my surprise a German fighter circled low overhead and to my surprise the the pilot waved cheerily at myself and my group of friends.

The early 1940's eventually saw the blitzes gradually come to an end. The next memory is the arrival of the American troops, that were billerted in the village. I learned about Lucky Strike cigarettes, chewing gum, how to spy on "courting" couples and what the funny used balloons had been used for !!. If nothing else, for the wrong reasons it was good finishing school.

In 1944, playing in the garden, the skies became full of aircraft, strange, because they were towing oddly shaped aircraft behind them.
My Father exclaimed excitedly, "Its started, its started, its the Second Front, the invasion has started at last"

Sadly, he was right, as the flow of casualties to the local hospitals was to commence soon after.

VE Day came with such excitement, the many bonfires in the distance,seen from the vantage point of our hill, the dancing in the streets. The excitement repeated with coming of VJ Day.

As a postscript, the days of Clothing, Food, and Sweet coupons graually became an unpleasant memory. The excitement of being able to buy an orange, a banana and other like foods, a taste that my age group had hardly ever come across.

The war was over, and , God willing our friends and relatives would be back with us, sadly some would never return, their names eventually to be incsribed on the village War Memorial.

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