大象传媒

Whilst my war was eventful, I sailed through it fairly unscathed. Family members however were not always so lucky. My late partner George Bishop had an aunt, the eldest of 14 children who had married a German and lived in Germany. When the war started, Hitler made all non-Germans have numbers burned on their arms and she had to have it done. George lived in Hoxton at the time. When the bombing started he, along with his brother and other children, were sent to Luton. People were waiting to pick out the child they wanted to take and George and his brother Lenny were split up. Lenny鈥檚 people were very kind to him but George鈥檚 weren鈥檛. He stuck it out for a while then took his pocket money, bought a train ticket and went home. Shortly afterwards there was a raid and whilst they were in the shelter a bomb dropped on their house so they had nothing left. His dad took both the boys back to Luton and bought a house in Linden Road.

My cousin John Povey was a Petty Officer and his ship was torpedoed. The crew were in the water and covered in oil. They were eventually picked up and had to be treated for oil inhalation and burns.

One of my late husband鈥檚 uncles, Edward Chainey, was in the army. He was captured by the Italians and then sent to Germany where he was interned in a POW camp. When we began the invasion and our troops were getting nearer, the Germans took the prisoners and put them on a forced march toward Russia. If they didn鈥檛 move fast enough they were hit with rifles and left to die. After the war when Ted returned he was so thin he looked like a stick insect. When I entered the room, I thought his bed was empty but then a skeleton hand came out from under the covers. I was afraid to shake it in case it came off. For a year or more he had to live on yoghurt as his stomach couldn鈥檛 take solid food.

On Acton tube station I used to see a man who would walk up and down moaning softly and wringing his hands. Some people thought he was a drunk but apparently he had gone out to work and his entire family had been killed by a bomb. The poor man just spent his days in an awful misery and I still sometimes wonder what happened to him.

Occasionally on the train from Chiswick to London I would see an Air Force man who had been badly burned. The Doctors were starting to do skin grafts and these took a long time but you could see the horror and pity on the faces of fellow travellers. This tended to diminish as people saw more and more pilots with burned faces. They were so young and brave and we all owe them a lot.

Go to Hazel's War - Part 1 Evacuation.

Go to Hazel's War - Part 2 Under Attack in London.

Go to Hazel's War - Part 3 The War Effort.

Go to Hazel's War - Part 4 Dances, Spivs and one legged tights.

Go to Hazel's War - Part 5 Great Uncle Charlie.

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