大象传媒

I interviewed a 70 year old man who was 5 years old at the time the war broke out in 1939.

He lived in Swaythling, Southampton for much of the war, but was evacuated to Tichfield, near Fareham for about a year. He says he remembers it being a very rural place, which he liked because he had had very little experience of life in the country before this. Nowadays much of the village has become quite suburban.

He said that his family had a standard Anderson air raid shelter, but he also remembers some of his neighbours having a special kind of table which doubled up as an air raid shelter.

Southampton was heavily bombed during the war, especially the area near the docks, but he only remembers one bomb being dropped near to where he lived. This completely destroyed a house across the road from him, but did little other damage.

He said he had some idea of what was going on towards the end of the war, but at only 10 years old he did not have a huge understanding.

He said he was quite unusual in that he did not loose any close friends or relatives, but he knew a few people who had.

He remembers one unusual event during the war and that was when a lot of tanks appeared on a local housing estate - the flower estate - almost overnight. It was when the docks were being heavily bombed and all the tanks that had been parked there had to be moved to safety quickly. He doesn't understand why they chose that esate particularily, though.

He also remembers prisoners of war being kept on Southampton Common, which caused great interest among the local children.

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