大象传媒

this contribution was submitted by Alf Pagden to the People's War team in Wales and is added to the site with his agreement.
After the evacuation I was back in London and can remember looking out of the window and we were all saying: 鈥淥oh they鈥檝e got one!鈥� We could see what we thought was an aeroplane with flames coming out of its tail, and we all cheered! But of course that was the Doodle bugs, so we lived through the doodle bugs. During that time my mother was adamant we would go into the shelter. We had an Anderson shelter which was one which was half in the ground and I can remember we would go in there and bail the water out鈥ecause that part of London was in marshy land鈥o we had to bail the water out to sleep in there overnight. It wasn鈥檛 very pleasant at all.

As a child you weren鈥檛 frightened 鈥�..it was just something you lived with. My cousins moved in to a house just along the road from us and between us there was a baker鈥檚 shop. And I can remember that we went in and bought some doughnuts and the siren went, so I just carried on eating my doughnut, but my cousins 鈥� who鈥檇 just come from the country 鈥� ran like mad. And that maybe shows how blas茅 you started to get when you lived amongst it. As a kid, things are not the same as an adult.

Us kids we played in these bombed buildings 鈥� it was adventure! We had camps, dens, bonfires鈥 mean we had far more freedom than the children do now. Its very mixed feelings鈥�.of course people died and that, but as a child it didn鈥檛 register like that. It was something that happened and if it wasn鈥檛 your own father or your own mother or that it wouldn鈥檛 register with you. It was somebody else, it wouldn鈥檛 happen to me type of attitude.

My most vivid memory was being with the doodle bugs and the rockets 鈥� the V2. Then you hadn鈥檛 a clue. I recall the times when you were sitting in the shelter鈥nd you heard these doodle bugs come over and the engine would miss, and then stop and then you just waited and I think a lot of it鈥ou weren鈥檛 scared yourself. It was your parents鈥hose legs were shaking and that transmitted to you very much. Those were the vivid memories I have of my mother being very very scared and I can understand that now. But as a child you took it in your stride.

I remember VJ night most when my father took me to the Blackfriars Bridge and we saw the fireworks on the Thames. It was exciting. The other thing I remember is VE day we lit bonfires in the streets鈥nd these were huge, on the tarmac and I mean there were gas mains underneath. It was glorious these big fires, but they were piled high in the middle of the road and I can remember the damage in the road for months or years afterwards.

I also remember the build up to D-Day
Opposite the house that we eventually moved to there was a waste area 鈥� bombed area - and one day the army came and started wiring all this off and then tanks came in, and jeeps and personnel carriers and of course that was the build up to D-Day with the vehicles going to the docks. That area was a big part of D-Day together with the coastal towns鈥ut that brought it very much to home that something big was happening.

At the end of the war there were banners and windows decorated with 鈥淲elcome Home Dad鈥� all over the place. I was fortunate because my Dad was on the Acac in Folkestone and his last posting was Croydon. Before the war ended I remember as a 10 year old getting on the trains and going down to Croydon because it was open to the family. I was only ten and I look at it now, getting on a train into central London on the southern railway down to Croydon and ten years old. I think nowadays the freedom鈥�.there鈥檚 a big difference in the freedom we had鈥ven with the restrictions of the war. I also remember the teacher at school coming in and holding up one lemon鈥nd saying 鈥淭his is a lemon鈥� and it was raffled. But nowadays, there鈥檚 no seasons even, fruit is there all year round and I think of the time we had with restrictions, it meant that you appreciated things.

I also remember a very simple thing鈥eople coming in and saying 鈥淭hey鈥檝e got number eight batteries at the shop round the corner鈥� and you鈥檇 all rush round just to get the battery, which was a torch battery and you had to have that.

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