大象传媒

I was 3 years old when the War started, living in a small bungalow about 1 mile from Pocklington.
Before the outbreak of war the powers that be decided that an airfield should be built very close to our house and I can remember my father taking me to see the runway being constructed. The end of the main runway was approx 400 yds from our house. My grandfather was ordered to cut down a chestnut tree in his field as it was on the flight path and landing lights were installed only 20 yards from our living room window.
On many mornings I would wake to find that bombers had over run the runway and ended only 100 yds away.
I can remember going on my tricycle to the end of the runway and waving to the bombers as they set off in the evening, the rear gunner would wave back. A Very pistol light was fired as a signal to set off.
I can remember going to see several crashed bombers, the word would go round the school when one crashed and we would all set off to view the scene. We knew that the crew had perished but that fact did not really sink in.
One day on my way to school I had to pass a crash site, the wreakage was still on fire. Unexploded bombs lined the roadside, later rumaging through the remains we found forged currency notes and ration cards which would have been dropped into Germany to disrupt their rationing system.
My father was in a reserved occupation so had to join the Home Guard, he had his rifle propped up in a corner of the bedroom, I used to watch him clean it and its enormous bayonet. I remember asking him if he would shoot the Germans with it.
He was a regular attender of the Congregational Chapel and he would invite airmen who attended the chapel home for tea. They would tell me of their flying exploits and make Meccano models for me. One in particular talked about flying over the Alps to bomb the Italian Fiat factory. He told me that it was so cold that, when he laid his pocket watch on the floor of the aircraft it froze there.
The airmen visited our home only once or twice before the word came back that they had perished.
My mother and father were shocked to learn that some of the airmen, although married had made "friends" with local girls.
The airfield attracted the attention of enemy bombers. The first stick of bombs blew an enormous hole in a field some distance from the target but blew up the gas main from the local gas works. Very close to the end of the runway lay the municipal sewage works, many bombs fell into the filter beds but because of the nature of the material in the beds - failed to explode. The job of digging them out would not have been pleasent. Pocklingtom was subject to cannon attack several times, probably by bombers which had dropped all their bombs
At one stage German fighters were following our bombers back to England after their bombing mission. They would then shoot down the bombers as the were circling the airfield waiting for their turn to land. My mother thought this tactic to be very underhand!
Italian prisoners of war were brought by lorry to help out on the local farms, initailly heavily guarded but laterly I could see very little sign of a single armed guard. There was something of a scandle when, after the war a German prisoner of war, after being repatriated to Germany, came back to Pockington and married the daughter of the farmer whose fields he had worked on during the war.
My mother (sometimes with my father) took me to Scarborough where my grand parents lived for our summer holidays. I can remember watching soldiers in canoes on Seamer Mere - comandos practicing my father said. I also remember tank landing craft beaching on the sand in the South Bay. Further south at Cornelian Bay the beach and cliffs were notices saying the area was mined. Neither I nor the local children took any notice but quite happily forced our way through the barbed wire to get to the beach
I can remember wrought iron gates and fences being removed and taken away for the war effort - and at the end of the war the outrage when many were discoveed in a disused yard.
Because we lived in the country rationing (except for sweets) did not really affect us. We grew our own vegetables, kept hens in small coops in our front garden and local farmers were always generous when a pig had been slaughtered.
After VE day but before VJ day Pocklington Airfield ad an open day - I can rememember going along with my father for a look around and being lifted into a Halifax bomber. My father was particularly interested in the radar equipment and I wondered why he was so excited.
The Yorkshire Wolds were supposed to be similar to the German/Polish terrain so were extensively used as a training grounds. We saw squads of soldiers running down the country lanes in tight formations -"ah those are commandos" said those who knew. Looking out through our living room window one afternoon I saw a Bren gun carrier which had driven past our bungalow towards a major road. Having got past our house the driver decided to take a short cut, turned right though the hedge, across the field and again though the opposite hedge onto the road.
I can remember my mother dancing with delight at reports on the radio of Russian advances into Germany - she never could understand after the War how the Russians came to be our enemies.

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