大象传媒

This story was submitted to the people鈥檚 war site by Sophie Chapman from St George鈥檚 school, Broadstairs and has been added to the website on behalf of Pauline Bentley with his/her permission and they fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.
There was an iron kitchen table which was called an Anderson table. This was designed to save a family's life if a bomb dropped on the house because if a stray bomb was approaching then there was no time to reach the safety of the shelter in your garden. I remember on two occasions my brother, mother and i had to rush under the table and my mother rushed out and picked up our potty and put it in the oven because these were considered sacred during the war for Mum's potty training their children in particular. The potty was made of china so by putting it in the oven it would remain intact unlike our house!
My other memory is of the outside shelter which, consisted of two sets of bunk beds and a small kerasene light. When the sirens sounded my brother and i would dash outside as quickly as possible as our reward would always be a sweet. Sweets were extremely important at that time because the ration for a family of four was 4 ounces a week.
We were living in a small block of terraced houses and the house at the back of ours was bombed which, claimed the life of two people who very well known in our community. The large house at the other end was completely obliterated but everyone survived. I can still remember the violent trembling and the powerful noise that could be heard in our Anderson shelter at the end of the street.
My father who was at the time an air raid warden, found our next door neighbour who supported the Nazis holding a full beam torch up to the sky shouting 'here we are!'.
I can remember my father telling me about my elder brother Rowley returning from Dunkirk. He was in the water with his men for eight hours and they were told they had to save their guns and they had to hold them above their heads for those eight hours. During that time he lost four men who drowned from the constant pressure. One of the young men was from Scotland and he had a precious belonging which, was a Scottish doll in a full uniform. He gave this to my brother before he drowned. This doll he kept in the bottom drawer in his bedroom and after the war i was allowed every sunday to play with this doll and i still have it to this day. When my brother came back he slept for 7 days and only woke up for a drink because he was so exhausted from the War but he still had to go back.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.