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This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Berkshire on behalf of Doreen Barter and has been added to the site with her permission. Doreen Barter fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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During the 30s and 40s my father, Ernest Hambelton, had a dairy (White House Dairy) in Winnersh. I worked for him delivering milk. I wanted to go into the forces but couldn't because my father had a reserved occupation. Myself and my friend, Emily Smith did fire watching. One night there was a very orange glow in the sky and we thought Wokingham was on fire so we knocked on the ARP warden's door and got him out of bed and he very angrily told us that it was the sun coming up! He wasn't very happy at being got out of bed. He was a miserable old devil!

In 1943 we saw a German bomber fly over Mill Lane. He dropped a bomb in a field, which caused a crater big enough to put a horse and cart in. The bomber then flew over what is now Lower Earley and on into Reading and dropped fire sticks on the People's Pantry and a lot of people were killed. The pilot also machine gunned and killed a young policeman. We didn't know what had happened until I went to Reading the next day to pick up our milk quota from the milk marketing board and the road was barricaded. That's when I found out what had happened. I was very late getting home, my Dad never believed me! He was really angry because he was waiting to bottle the milk.

One day in 1944, during a terrific thunderstorm two RAF lads on a motorbike and side-car stopped me and asked if there was a café near by. I invited them into the house. One of them showed my father his gun when it discharged accidentally, shooting Dad through his side and through one lung. We were panic struck because we had no phone. I ran to a neighbour who had a phone to call an ambulance. The serviceman was hysterical. Dad was taken into hospital. He survived. He wouldn't make a formal complaint because the young serviceman had a wife and young family. My husband was sent home on compassionate leave to help run the dairy. He was home for two weeks when the police came with his train warrant; he was recalled for active service because of D-Day.

There was a prisoner of war camp at Hurst, for Germans. The prisoners weren't allowed to make contact, but the guards bought the milk from us on their behalf.

Me and my friend Freda had the job of starting the Winnersh ambulance once a week. It was so old it must have been pre-first world war. You had to take the engine by surprise; it had a kick like a mule. If we could get it started we took it round the block. It was kept in the nurseries at Hurst. Earley had a proper ambulance. The group was run by Mrs Pocock. The Earley ambulance group met at St. Peter's and did first aid practice once a week.

At the dairy, we delivered to Earley, Hurst, Sindlesham, Bearwood and Woodley. I did the longer distances in a van. Dad delivered locally with a horse and cart. Some of the milk was bottled and some was sold by the jugful direct from the churn. We delivered fresh milk every day.

We weren't allowed to go out with a torch, with a shade on the headlights — it was very dodgy delivering milk in the depths of a dark winter on the country roads!

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