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Memoirs of Arthur Carter during world War 2.

I was born on 28th September 1932 at 15 Guildford Street Southampton, My parents John and Nellie Carter had 14 children which I was the 10th.

My first recollection of W.W.2 was the sight of several aeroplanes making their way along the River Itchen.

My Father and I were tending some rowing boats at the Coalporters club situated at Dibels Wharf, when we heard the drones of the aeroplanes. As there was no warnings of sirens, we assumed they were British planes. Imagine our absolute horror when we witnessed them bombing all the spitfires and the factory at Super Marines, which was situated on the other side of the Itchen River very close to Peartree Green.

The sheer frustration of not being able to warn anybody of the sight that was unravelling before our very eyes left a very long lasting impression on me and to this day I still have a very vivid memory of this disaster.

The next horrific memory I have is when we tried to return to our home with my Father after a night of bombardment. Our family had been split up because our shelter could not house all of us.

So my Father took half of the children to Northam Road School shelter, whilst my Mother, younger Sister and Brother, Aunt and Cousin stayed in the Anderson shelter in our garden.

We realised there had been a very bad raid on our area, and when we were allowed out of the shelter, we could see a local fuel merchants yard ablaze. Paraffin was running down the road spreading the flames all over the place.

The wardens would not let us go to our house as the whole area was cordoned off. We had no idea if my Mother and the rest of my family were alive. So we had a few agonising hours standing on the corner of Radcliffe Road and Northam Road. Fortunately a friend who was in the armed forces came by; his name was Tommy Green. Tommy was allowed in the cordoned area so he very kindly located and found the rest of our family safe, although they were very shaken. He also told us the sad news that our home had been flattened by a bomb, fortunately the bomb had just missed the shelter.

Eventually we were allowed to go to our bombed house to salvage our few belongings. This left us with another dilemma, we had no home and the only thing we could do was to pile our few possessions on to a flat truck and push it to my married sister鈥檚 home at 103 Stanton Road.

This was very difficult for my Dad because he was a survivor of the 1st world war. During his time in this war he fought in many major battles. In his last battle he was left in a battlefield with his foot blown off for 48 hours.

This resulted in him spending the next three years in hospital. Unfortunately he had gangrene running with the knife and he lost his left leg. He was unable to wear a false leg so he was forced to use crutches.

The walk through the town of Southampton out to Regents Park was very long and very upsetting. When we reached Above Bar Street we could see the whole of the High Street ablaze.

Decisions had to be made, as my Sister Eddie did not have room for all of us. It was decided that two of my Brothers Alf and Ron and Sister Violet would lodge with my Uncle Alf and Auntie Bessie. Another Sister Nell stayed with a friend, and Sister Glad stayed at her place of employment. This just left my Parents and the three youngest children, Myself Gwen and Bobby, to stay with my married sister in 103 Stanton Road Regents Park.

This lead to another problem, Because there was not enough room in the local shelter. Every night we would have to walk about three miles to the nearest shelter that had room for us, this was at the public house called 鈥淭he Horns Inn鈥�. You can imagine how tired we would be the next day. I was always falling asleep at school along with many of the other pupils.

Some times during night raids, my Brother in Law Les Lewis drove us out to the New Forest in his Austin 7, he thought we would be safer out there. However one night because it was so dark he inadvertently parked us near a battery of guns which was hidden in the Forest. You can imagine how we felt when they started to fire. Needless to say we did not make this journey again.

It took us about a year before we were re housed to 7 Victoria Road Millbrook. Once established the family was re united, all except my sister Violet who decided to stay with my Uncle.

Here we had our own Anderson shelter unfortunately Dad was unable to use this shelter. This was due to his crutches he could not manipulate himself down into the shelter. We all thought that he went to a communal shelter near Millbrook recreation ground. Until one day after we had emerged from another very bad raid. We were told the area we thought Dad had taken shelter, had been badly bombed. Needless to say we went looking for him fearing the worse, only to find him sitting on the wall at Toogood seed factory, Millbrook Road, smoking his pipe. He confessed later that this was where he always took refuge, he was unable to face the shelters alone.

Life was very hard for us during this time, as food was rationed or just not available. Dad used to take a small rowing boat out into Southampton waters and try to catch fish so that we had something to eat at night.

I can remember when two of my Sisters got married. We tried to make it as happy as possible. The lounge in our house was re arranged and we put big trestle tables around the edge of the room. We foraged for as much food as we could either gather or scrounge from neighbours. These happy days were very welcomed during such bleak times.

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