大象传媒

I was 10 years old when war was declared. It was a warm sunny day and my parents were listening to the radio with sombre faces, I didn't know why, until suddenly I was told - we were at war. I remember that we had winkles for tea.
It wasn't until the Spring that the air raids started in earnest. Sure enough, as soon as Mother put the roast in the oven, the sirens would sound and the oven had to be switched off. Close to the oven was the cupboard under the stairs, where we had a mattress on the floor and we would all sit in there until the all clear sounded.
As the raids got worse we spent a lot of time in this cupboard.

On one occasion, in the middle of a bad raid, we could hear planes machine gunning the streets. Another time I was playing in the garden with my cat, (there had been no air raid warning)I heard a plane and looked up and saw two flaps open up underneath it, and as I watched, something fell from the plane. As I called to my mother "somethings falling from the plane!", she grabbed hold of me and we ran into the kitchen. We heard the explosion when the bomb dropped, but it wasn't near enough to do any damage.
As we were in the flight path to London I remember seeing German Bombers flying over in perfect V formation, with no interception at all. I was able to distinguish between the sounds of German and English planes.

As the Battle of Britain intensified, we visited a friend in a nearby village. During the visit the siren went and we all went down into the basement of the flats. The noise of the dogfights was deafening, even in the basement. I was allowed to go quickly to go the toilet upstairs and couldn't resist looking out of the window. Although there was a clear blue sky, it was covered with German planes, and British Spitfires flying in and out, shooting at them. Some planes had smoke billowing from the back, one was on fire and one dropping to earth. Below them was a number of white billowing parachutes - I ran back to the basement - I didn't tell anyone what I had seen in case I got into trouble!

In the middle of September Dad came home early from work at 4 o'clock. Posters had been put up round the city, telling the people that an invasion was imminent and that if we had anywhere to go, to get out and take the children. Before 6 o'clock we had left the house with only two suitcases and although it was very hot, my twin brothers and I had to wear winter coats over our clothes to save space. The train left at 6 o'clock on its way to North Wales.

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