大象传媒

My name is Fredrick Cole. I was born 20 September 1928 and I was living in Newhaven.

My first recollection to do with the war is two days before it started. I was away with my mother on holiday in Gravesend, my father being a builder, wasn鈥檛 there. He remained at home. He had to work. My mother suddenly realised that a war was imminent. Everybody was getting very worried about everything. There was enormous tension. I was only ten years old, coming on eleven, but it even transmitted to me and so she grabbed me, packed madly, into a train back to Newhaven.

The next year I went to Lewes Grammar School. I was almost twelve then, and my war experiences, quite varied. There was one day when we were going in the train to Lewes; we found afterwards that we鈥檇 run over an unexploded bomb. There was a hold-up then and there weren鈥檛 many trains for several hours but the managed to defuse it I understand, and back we came.

The most telling experience of all, I think, was when in 1944 when an ammunition barge exploded outside the harbour. I woke up in the morning with most of the ceiling of my bedroom round my head. Every window in the house was gone, the front door was blown in, and I understand that quite a lot of people suffered the same kind of problem. But it was a very traumatic night

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