大象传媒

I was 5 years old when the war started and I lived on the Kent coast, at Ramsgate.

One of my very first memories of the war was the Battle of Dunkirk, where the Germans drove the British army out of France.
It was a terrible defeat and all the soldiers had to cross the English Channel to get back to Britain.
To do this they were rescued by hundreds of small boats, fishing vessels, speedboats, pleasure boats, and even rowing boats.
Some, including one of my uncles, swam a long way until they were picked up by boat.

My grand parents had a hotel and I can remember them loading up my brother's pushchair and a pram with blankets and bed linen and we all going to the promenade at the top of the cliffs and throwing blankets, pillows and sheets over the railings to the soldiers landing on the beaches so that they could be warm, and the wounded ones more comfortable.

Our First Evacuation
Because we lived so close to the sea it was considered very dangerous. If there were to be an invasion, and as my grandfather was very severely disabled from the First World War, the whole family was asked to move away from the coast. Much of the property was going to be used soon for soldiers.
We moved to London, which was a very silly move, we stayed in South-east London very near to the Surrey Docks. When the 'Blitz' started the docks were the main targets and I remember it being a very noisy and a frightening time with air raids every night.

Air-Raid Shelters
Our next move was to just a few miles away. We had a very nice house with a big garden, high at the top of a hill. Our house was in a road between two schools. The one at the front was turned into a Barrage Balloon Station and the one at the back, an Observation Station used to spot planes approaching.
At the bottom of the garden under a tree was our Air-Raid Shelter (An Anderson Shelter).
This was dug into the ground (about a metre) had a concrete floor and sides, and was covered by a curved corrugated iron roof which was then covered with earth. It was not very big (as far as I can remember about 2by 3 metres and had a tiny ladder to get down into it).
If there were any air raids we all had to go down to the shelter. My brother and I had a little bed and the grown-ups would sit on benches round the sides.
Sometimes it was very cold down there. We had hot water bottles to keep warm, not the modern rubber ones, but made of stone, with a cork in the top, or glass ones with stoppers. They were filled with hot water and put in a cloth bag.
The same water was used over and over again. In the morning they were emptied into a large enamel jug that was left on the kitchen range to reheat. Water wasn't rationed but had to be used very sparingly, as a lot would be needed to put fires out after an air raid.
We had to take very quick baths and share the water between us all before it got cold.
We had a Morrison Shelter inside the house. (A cage about the size and height of a large dining table with a very heavy metal top). This was supposed to be for my grandfather, he couldn't get down into the garden shelter, but he never used it. He couldn't get into the indoor one either.

Schools
Between the ages of 5 and 11 I went to 10 different schools. It was not unusual to leave a school one day and not be able to go back the next because of the night's bombing.
Sometimes they were taken over by the Army or Air Force and used for training. We liked watching them marching up and down in the playgrounds.
Because I went to so many schools there were many gaps in my education. I could read quite well so had to do a lot at home with my Grandfather's help.

One of the strangest subjects was History. I knew a lot about the Tudors and Stuarts, (that seemed to be the period they were teaching at every school I went to), but practically nothing about what went before or after!

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.