大象传媒

Having been born in 1938, I was 19 months when World War Two was declared, so my memories are varied and very likely to be out of sequence, but never the less some are still very vivid. At that time we lived in Chessington Surrey. My brother was born in 1942 and my Dad went into the navy after spending some time as a Air Raid Warden, I do know he was some what older than a lot of the conscripts so I presume he was called up when more men where needed.

AIR RAID WARDEN

I have some vague memories of dad and one of our neighbours going off in the evening with their tin helmets and torches to check on the black out, I also remember the small pill box type of construction made out of sand bags where they could take shelter and have a cuppa during their shift.

The Air Raid Sheter

We had the indoor Morrison Shelter in the dinning room (I wonder where the dinning table went to.) which we often spent most of the nights in, by this time dad must have been called up into the Navy because I can only remember Mum, Grandma, my baby brother and myself in the house. When the air raid siren souned it was my job to look after the baby and get into the shelter as soon as possible with him. My Aunt and Uncle had the Anderson shelter in the garden, which of course we all used when we visited them in Barking Essex. This shelter always seemed safer to me as it was partly below ground level with the soil from the hole it was set in thrown on top. It was certainly noisier for half a mile up the road was an anti-aircraft battery that would pound away while the German aircraft or flying bombs flew overhead. As this shelter was in the garden away from the house we seemed to have everything but the kitchen sink down there, torches and candles, blankets, pillows etc. to make our stay as comfortable as possible untill the "All Clear" sounded.

The POW Camp

Just around the corner, next to our local shopping parade there was a Prisoner Of War camp, which was occupied by Germans and Italians at different times. It was very outstanding the variation in the camp between the Germans and the Italians. When the Germans were there the camp was kept in very good order with the German eagle in the form of a mosaic made from bomb damaged roof tiles, bricks and bits and pieces picked from around the area, for the Germans would go out and garden and do odd jobs for the local people. When the Itians occupied the camp it was run down and generally messy with the prisoners sitting around outside the huts most of the day. The local library stands on the site today.

The Convoys

When the troops started moving south, living just around the corner from the A243 we saw many of the army vehicles in convoy. The stream of lorries seemed endless, at times we would wait ages to cross the road to get to the shops on the other side. Just in frount of the POW camp mentioned above was a lay-by and sometims lorries would pull in for a break. If the Americans stopped , us kids would hurry to the spot to chat to them and ask, "Got Any Gum Chum" and of course more often than not we would be given some. Apart from the men themselves their dress and accents, the size of the lorries with tanks and all the other equipment on board seemed huge.

The Local Bomb

One night we had a bomb drop three or four roads away from us, on the other side of the our parade of shops. As was the routine it seemed everybody was out the next morningto see what damage had been done. Unfortunately it completely demolished at lease one house and killed a number of people. But the memory I have is of a house nearer the shops right on the A243 that had most of its tiles blown off by the blast from the bomb. The man that lived in this house with his wife and childern was up on the roof sobbing,putting the tiles back and calling Hitler all the names under the sun. A further memory I have is of my pal's mother taking us back to school after lunch, when we got to the end of the long drive up to the school a Flying Bomb came right over our heads and the poor woman seem to freeze to the spot not knowing whether to turn back or run for the school, as it happened the bomb carried on some distance before the engine cut out.

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