大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website personally by Elsie Roberts nee Forrest and added to the site with her permission.

My first recollection is of me being at my cousin鈥檚 birthday party on Christmas Eve. My Dad who was in the Civil Defence was recalled for duty because of a big raid in Manchester. He was a team leader for the First Aid. He had called on his way to the First Aid Post to see his Dad, Sister and me to say 鈥淢erry Christmas鈥� and his goodbyes. During this time he was with the Kents Bank Unit, and the Unit went wherever it was needed. The East Lancs Road was used constantly because of the bombing of Manchester and Liverpool. When the Unit was at Kents Bank, my Dad used to get word to my Mother if the Unit was on its way to Manchester so the convoy of vans, ambulances and equipment would be coming through Bolton Road, Chorley, for just a wave, or if lucky a quick word.
All the war years, my Dad was stationed at different places, Kirkby (Liverpool), Stevenage (Kent) and spent a lot of time in the London Blitz. One time, my Dad sent us a big parcel of apples and hazelnuts. My Mother used to bottle fruit and make jam. We had two apple trees in the garden, raspberry canes, and rhubarb. If you made your own jam, you could get extra sugar for jamming. Our meat safe was always full of bottled fruit and jams. Me and my brother had to go blackberrying to help.
One of my aunties had to go to a meeting of air raid wardens and I went with her, I would be about eight years old. There was a demonstration of the use of the stirrup pump and how to get incendiaries off buildings.
Going back to when I was smaller, my Mother tells of how the local garden nursery had got some oranges. We went off to get some but, we were told, they were only for children with a green ration book. I was too old, I had a blue ration book because I was five years old. The man said 鈥渨hat a shame, too old at five, and never had an orange鈥�. He gave me one.
My Mother鈥檚 cousin was a prisoner of war in Germany and he sent us postcards when he got allocated extra for good behaviour. One card we got had been censored and had black lines all over it.
One day I was playing at the front of the house when a young couple was walking by and the man was in a plain blue uniform. When I asked what he was, my mother said he was a wounded soldier in hospital blues.
The Yanks were stationed at Washington Hall in Chorley. My friend and I were playing during the school holidays in Astley Park and we were running through the woods. A couple (Yank and girlfriend) gave us a Mars Bar and told us to go and play.
The Tanks were being made at Leyland and quite often, three or four Tanks would go through Bolton Street, Chorley.

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