大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Alison lear on behalf of John Chadwick. The story has been added to the site with his permission. And John Chadwick fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

When war broke out in 1939 I was living with my parents and aunt in Eltham, London but I was sent to another aunt in Epsom from September to Christmas. I came home because all was quiet- it was the period of the "phoney" war. I was 9 years old.

There was no school, however, because most children had been evacuated. The handful left were taught by a supply teacher at each other's houses. Eventually I went back to a school in Eltham where I stayed until the blitz. The bombing of London started in September 1940 when the Germans carpet bombed all the industries on the river.

My dad was in a reserved occupation as a maintenance engineer at Siemans. One day my dad's factory was flattened. There was a direct hit on a shelter where most of the women machine operators were hiding.
I came across a man, who worked with my father, being stretchered into his house. I asked him for news and he said "they are all dead in Siemans. No one got out". I ran home to mother to break the news and after the first shock had subsided we went into her bedroom to my father's side of the bed and knelt down and prayed with our hands on his pillow.
Three hours later a very dirty, dishevelled being came through the door wanting a cup of tea. We were so relieved my dad was safe that my mum burst into tears and I put the kettle on. He sat in his armchair and fell asleep - he never did drink his tea!

During this time we had to spend every night, for a number of weeks, in an Anderson air raid shelter at the bottom of our garden. It was very narrow and damp and a tight squeeze for 4 people.

During the blitz my mum gave me the job of "watching" the radio! We had a magic eye tuner on our radio which had a green iris and black centre. When the Germans started to mass over the Channel, the 大象传媒 would flatten the radio signal causing the magic eye to produce a big gap in the iris. That was the signal, after telling mother, to go outside and after the sirens had sounded their warning I listened for the unsynchronised drone of the first German aircraft approaching. I then told my mother, picked up the bag of family heirlooms and papers, and proceeded to the Anderson shelter where my mum would join me to wait for my dad.
My dad would not come to the shelter until he had finished his dinner which my mother had left simmering in a covered saucepan. He said "no Jerry is going to chase me from my table until I've eaten my dinner!". He cut it fine once or twice when he suddenly appeared in the shelter head first when things got a little too 'busy' outside!

Following this my mum and I were evacuated to Potterne in Wiltshire where we stayed for over a year. I won a scholarship in 1941 to a central school in nearby Melksham so we moved there. Unfortunately we were billeted with a childless couple and the wife was terminally ill so I had to be quiet all the time- not easy for an 11 year old! We decided to return to Eltham in 1942 where I went to Eltham Hill Girls School! This was one of the sixteen different schools I attended during the war years.

Continued in Part 2 - Story A4851795 -
"Frankie's Coat" and Part 3 - Story A4852415 - "Doodlebugs"

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