大象传媒

I was just 10 years old when the war started. We lived very near to Hornchurch aerodrome. I remember listening to the broadcast by Neville Chamberlain and wondering what it would mean to us. About 20 minutes later the sirens sounded. I was very frightened expecting a gas attack.

School was suspended as such. We went to schoool every day just to be given some homework and to have the previous day's marked. It was good fun having so much play time and we formed ourselves into a gang. There was little or no roads traffic so we could play oin the streets without any danger. We used to help some of the delivery people the "Egg lady", the "Grocery man" and the "Vegetable lady", fetching and carrying as we could. Many children in our area were evacuated and I remember seeing thjose in my street who with their cases and gas masks boardedbuses and coaches at the start of their journey.

During the "Battle of Britain" we watched the dogfights and vapour trails in the sky and heard
the machine ghuns firing. Many bombs were dropped around and we collected shrapnel and other souvenirs, taking taking great
pleasure in showing off our latest finds. We followed a parachute down and it was a German pilot. Lots of people turned up with pitchforks and other implements to catch him. The police came and took him away.

At the time of the anti-personnel bombs we found a large tin full of "oil and metal rollers". We took ity to the local War Reserve Policeman who built a wall of sandbags around it and called for the army. It turned out to be a tin of cigarettes which had become waterlogged and the nicotine had formed a thick liquid which looked like oil. We were blamed by the Policeman for making him look a fool and he kept chasing us after that. We dodged the army guards around a crashed German polane looking for souvenirs and were caught - more trouble with the police!

We had an Anderson sgelter in the back garden which had an internal lining of concrete to make it "waterproof". On the first night of the real blitz, my father who worked in London and was usualy home by 8/9pm did not get home until after 3am. He had had to walk all the way dodging bombs and fires. We slept in the shelter, my brother and parents on bedding on the floor and I was on a cot spring across the concrete at the rear. One night my brother sat up and sank into water which had seeped in. I thought I had the last laugh - until I had to walk across the bedding to get out. That shelter was abnandoned and we slept underneath a big oak table indoors. Later we had a Morrison shelter indoors on which we used to try to play table tennis.

One day after a heavy raid a group of us found a parachute mine which had not exploded lying across a path, caught in some trees. We cut off the parachute and took it home to share out. Our parents were honest and told the Police who took it away, leaving us with some of the cords as souvenirs -0 after giving us a real rocketing.

One night after a bath, my brother and I were sitting on a settee in the bay window. The raid was getting heavy and my mother told us to get away from the windows. I had just sat on a pouffe in front of the fire when it happened. All I can remember is my mother shaking me and calling out for me to speak. I was choking on soot and struggling to breathe and swallo. Apparently a parachute mine had exploded just outside tyhe bottom of our garden As the fire was blown into the room I had somehow been sucked into the fireplace and covered in the fall of soot. The windows had been blown in and the settee was covered on broken glass and debris. The ceilings had collapsed and the place was a shambles. We walked to some friends about 2 miles away and on the way suddenly realised that my mother, who had been paralysed from the waist down after a nervous breakdown, did not haver her crutches with her. The shock of what had happoened had somehow restored her power of movement. I lost some school friends that night as our area had been seriously damaged. Tyhe house, an end of terrace, had been separated from that next door , at the front, at some of our curtains had been sucked into the gap which then closed trapping the curtains.

As the houser was temporarily uninhabitable we went to stay with my grandparents in Hull. We arrived there just in time for their blitz. Luckily we lived on the outskirts of the town and apart from the noises (and fright)were not damaged.

We later returned home and resumed life "normally" after war damage repairs had been completed. We sawa many "doodlebugs" and heard some rockets but without any more local damage.

The excitement of a possinle second front was in everyone's minds and I can clearly remember seeing the sky full of aeroplanes and gliders and realising that "IT" had started. We followed the advances of the troops across Europe on a largemap with cotton jokjning up pins inserted in village names as they were re-captured. I remember the excitement of waiting for the news of the surrender aspecially as school would be cancelled the following day.

I was later in The Mall, London on VJ night and the thrill of being there on such an historical occasion
feeling the enthusiasm and excitement of the crowds
was out of this world and something never to have been missed.

Bryan Coates. 12.11.2003.

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