大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Morwenna Nadar of CSV/大象传媒 LONDON on behalf of Malcolm Tadd and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was 8 years old at the beginning of the war and 14 when it ended. I lived in Brighton and suddenly, overnight it seemed, all the men had gone and it was a different place for the women and children left behind. The town seemed to me to be surrounded by barbed wire and the beach was covered in it, presumably to prevent any of the enemy landing. Later on, lots of Canadian soldiers were stationed in the region and we often saw them around the town.
I remember playing football in the nearby field when a group of German prisoners came along under guard. They started to join in and very soon our game turned into a friendly match between the Germans? and the British. I'm not sure now who won.
I remember on one occasion a bomb fell on a cinema when there were a lot of school-children inside and many of them were killed. Another time, a children's clinic was hit by a bomb, and again there were many casualties.
It was very good news when the war e禄ded. There was great excitement, parties took place, and the black-out curtains were taken down. The lights could be shown at nights and suddenly Brighton became all lit up after being so dark for so long. The best part of it for my friends and me was that there was no school for a few days and we had bonfires on the streets until the police put a stop to them.

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