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I remember the day the war started I was aged 9 and was in bath. I lived near Cemetery Junction in Reading and remember seeing troops going through and I went to watch. When Reading was bombed I was coming home from school. You could tell the difference between English and German planes because they sounded different -unsynchronised engines, not a regular sound. The planes were machine-gunning the area as well- trying to hit the railway station. They were flying very low. I was in a hedge when I saw the bombs drop. Someone from the family met me then. I had seven brothers and two sisters — some were in the forces. One brother in merchant navy — on the Russian convoys — he was later decorated by the Queen.

When the Americans came — it was the first time we had chewing gum that didn’t have just one taste!!!

During war we used to eat dried powdered egg in a great big tin. I used to like eating the omelettes you could make out of them. American spam was delicious — one of the best meats I ever tasted. Food was short then. My Father grew a lot of food from our allotment and he supplied the street with food. I remember having to work to do it. People knew when the war was going badly — a book was issued with ships, which had been sunk, crossed off. It was very morbid. There was a lot of propaganda in pictures.
I dug shelters in gardens for various people — hole-digging was carried out with the help of corrugated iron and railway sleepers. It was then sandbagged in. We went down there on air raid nights. In Reading the bombs were not heavily concentrated. Air sirens often used to go at night — you could see the glow in sky after London had been bombed. There was limited space in shelters and they were cold and uncomfortable. For example, Coventry was devastated in one night so you never knew how long you could be safe.
The noise was horrific, pressure waves feel them coming at you and not even near. On TV it all looks very simple.
There was an ammunitions factory at Burghfield.

My brother in forces brought back occupation money — eg. money from Italy, France. Given windscreens from planes that were shot down. My parents used to tell me about WW1 — when the times were even harder — They could remember Zeppelins coming over when they were in London. Dad drove trains from Reading to London on the southern railway and remembers seeing Waterloo station burning and the tarmac on the platforms bubbling because they were alight underneath. Narrowly missed a bomb.

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