大象传媒

I was born in 1930 on the Isle of Wight, the youngest of 4 brothers and 3 sisters. My eldest brother was a company seargent major, another was in the Navy and my eldest sister worked in the TNT factory on the island.

We lived in a big house at Ryde near the sea and we could see the Solent from the top of our road. We has a lovely long garden with an orchard at the end and best of all, a secret tunnel which was rumoured to be an old smugglers tunnel!

I was 9 when war broke out. My Dad had served in the First World War in the Army. He had been in the trenches in France, waist deep in muddy water and disease and he suffered from having gas in the lungs. He knew what War was like and how our lives were about to change.

When the air raid sirens sounded, we used the tunnel at the bottom of our garden as a shelter. It went under the road and was lined in stone. We had an oil fired burner, an old settee and blankets in there to keep us warm.

Some people had Anderson Shelters but we didnt although we were down for one. Being ten of us and our dog it might have been a bit cramped. Sometimes there wasnt enough time to get up to the tunnel, so we had to get under out big wooden kitchen table with the dog. We were terrified and so was our dog!

The Military were billited all around us. From our upstairs windows we would watch the soldiers doing their bayonet practice. They made a hell of a noise. I suppose they had to as it gave them the strength to thrust thier bayonets into the enemy with every "errarrrghhh"!!!!!!

The empty house below ours had been taken over by the Army. It was a big house with 21 rooms. They would somethimes all go out and leave the lights on. My Dad would shout "get those lights out". He even reported it to the officer in charge as it could have been dangerous for us, as we could have all gone up.

As time went on it looked bad for the Islanders and the people over at Portsmouth. There were plans to evacuate one of my sisters and I. I was just 11 and my sister 13 and we were to be put on ships and sent abroad. We didnt want to go of course and we cried our eyes out. We didnt like war but we didnt want to leave the Island. In the end it was decided it would be far too dangerous to put children onto ships in case the Germans sank them thinking they were troop ships, so they abandoned the idea.

It didnt matter if it was day or night, you would still be nervous. We could see the barrage baloons and the 'Dog Fights' going on with the Spitfires across the Solent. Rather than return to Germany with unused bombs, the Germans would dump them at sea.

There were sea mines all along the sea front from Ryde to Puckpool Park, a few miles away. Big concrete blocks were used to block the slip ways and barbed wire was put down on the beaches in case of invasion.

I will never forget the day I went down to the beach by myself, leaving my brothers in the garden up the orchard. I suddenly became aware there were planes above and they were shooting bullets out. The Germans knew the Army were nearby and they just opened up. I could hear the bullets pinging and I could see they were hot, red hot. They were falling all around me, ricochaying off anything they hit. I didnt know what to do and went a bit hysterical. A man nearby heard my screams and came running over to me. He lead me to where he had been sheltering behind a wall and I was saved. It took me a while to calm down enough to be able to tell him where I lived, but eventually I was able to and he took me home. He told my Mum to give me some whisky as I'd had a shock!!!! I still think today how close those bullets got and how lucky I was.

I had just left school aged 14 1/2 when the War ended. My Dad had got TB because of the gas. He was only 52 when he died in a Sanatorium on the Island.

Didnt we rejoice when at the end of the War!

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