大象传媒

1939

War broke out on 3 September. When it was announced on the wireless by Mr Chamberlain I was in church. When I arrived home I found my mother crying and my father trying to comfort her. Air raids were expected to take place immediately so we children stayed close to home. As days passed by so the 鈥減honey war鈥� started. We had previously been issued with gas masks, which we now always carried wherever we went. Evacuees arrived in the area and many were billeted in our street and we made friends with all of them. They had a language of their own known as cockney slang, the first letter was moved to the end and finished with ay. I became OppyPay OllinsCay. All able-bodied men between the ages of 18-30 were called up for military service, although most of the younger men had already volunteered.

1940

Food rationing was introduced in 1940 and did not end until 1953. Amounts of food varied from season to season and most mothers cut down on their rations in order to make sure the children had enough to eat.

War was raging in Europe and we sang songs such as 鈥淗ang out the washing on the Siegfried Line鈥� and 鈥淩un Rabbit鈥�. Then in June our Forces were evacuated from Dunkirk and Britain stood alone.

Usually in the summer evenings all the ladies from our street would sit on the common sewing and knitting while the men tended their allotments and we children played rounders or had fun sliding down the hill. On 30th June we were all there when a plane suddenly appeared machine-gunning and dropping bombs. We didn鈥檛 know what was going on as this was our very first air raid, we all lay motionless on the grass and when the plane flew off we ran to our homes. Luckily all of the bombs landed on the beach near the oil tanks and in the cove.

On the following Thursday, 4th July I was on my way to school when suddenly enemy planes were flying at roof height machine-gunning and dropping bombs. I ran into a nearby shop with my friend and we sheltered there until all was quiet. We continued on our way to school by after a short while the headmaster sent us all home fearing there would be other raids. When I got there my mother said there had been a heavy raid in the Dockyard where my father worked, and the HMS Foylebank was on fire. About an hour later the air-raid sirens sounded and the landlord of the nearby Star Inn allowed us to sheltered in his cellar until the all clear sounded without any further action. We tried to carry on as normal for the rest of the afternoon with various reports being passed on form men returning from work in the Dockyard. My mother prepared tea for my father and we waited and waited but he didn鈥檛 come home. During the early evening we were informed that he was missing. The next day my uncles were called several times to go to the Mortuary to try and identify his body. Earl on Saturday morning we were informed that my father was in the Naval Hospital at Castletown, having been mixed up with the sailors and identified by the disc with his identity number on it. Obviously heartbroken and very nervous in case there were other air raids, so we went to stay with my Granny who lived just a few doors away. Also staying there were my Aunt Olly and my Aunt Beattie and her little boy Colin. The air raids became more frequent and we sheltered in the cupboard under the stairs or under the kitchen table.

After a while Anderson shelters were issued to houses with big enough gardens, these accommodated up to eight people. My Granny had one and this was to be shared between tow houses, Granny鈥檚 and Mr and Mrs Sayers next door, but usually all the family huddled into it, Granny, Aunt Olly, Aunt Beattie, Colin, Mum, me, Aunt May, Gwen, David, Baby, Mrs Sayers and later Aunt Elsie and Sylvia and occasionally Mrs Harvey and Bert. The men, Uncle Lishe, Uncle George, Mr Sayers and Mr Harvey stayed outside most of the time and sheltered under the porch. The shelter was very damp, as two thirds of it was underground. So we had buckboard on the floor and planks around to sit on and took cushions with us when we went down when there was an air raid. Most of the time the sirens sounded after the planes had come over. My Granny always seemed very old to me although she was only 62 but suffered with asthma. She used to sit in the bay window which overlooked Chesil Beach and watch the soldiers who were manning the guns and when they started to run to those guns on yellow alert she would call 鈥渢he soldiers are running鈥� so we children could alert the street and everyone could dive for what shelter they had and so were prepared for when the bombing started. We didn鈥檛 go very far from our doors in case Granny fell asleep and we wouldn鈥檛 be able to get home in time. Eventually concrete shelters were built in the streets; one was in the next street to another and us in the Park, so we could venture further away from home. If the day was very wet and foggy that would be the time to take the bus or train to Weymouth, as the planes didn鈥檛 come over in those conditions.

As we got more used to the air raids we ventured further from home and one sunny Sunday morning my cousin Violet and I decided to take her younger brother and sister and our small cousin Colin for a little walk. We decided to go to the cemetery in Castle Road, which was not very far away, and also there was a shelter in the park nearby, so we told our parents and set off. On the way we changed our minds and thought we would rather go to the cliff near the school. We were walking through narrow King Street when we heard the droning of the German Bombers and when we looked up the sky seemed to be full of them, then the siren sounded and a lady who knew Mrs Nation told us to come into her house to shelter, we all sat on the stairs hearing the explosions and feeling the ground trembling, all absolutely frightened to death, the younger children were crying for their Mummy. When the all clear sounded Mrs Nation told us to hurry home and on the way we saw the devastation of the raid. The Vicarage had been bombed, luckily the Vicar and his family were in Church at the time. When we reached the end of our street we looked down and saw two houses completely destroyed; miraculously no one was killed. My Mother and the Aunts were absolutely beside themselves with worry as they thought we were in Castle Road and the oil tanks there had been bombed and were on fire. Also in the same raid Aunt Elise鈥檚 house at Chiswell was destroyed, again, luckily they had gone on holiday to Reading the day before. My Uncle John Wren鈥檚 and his daughter鈥檚 houses were bombed and destroyed in Newstead Road, Weymouth, and sadly his son-in-law was killed
Uncle Lishe, Auntie Elsie and Sylvia then came to stay to Granny until they were able to find another house to live in. That meant that there were six adults and three children staying in Granny鈥檚 three-bedroom terrace house. Quite a tight squeeze, with some sleeping on the floor.

One afternoon the school was bombed, also the shelters, luckily it was a Sunday and we weren鈥檛 at school, otherwise who knows how many children would have been killed and injured. After this we all had to share the senior school, known as the Cliff School so one week we attended in the morning and the next week in the afternoon. Of course with the number of air raids we were having in this area many of the evacuees returned home which eased the situation.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.