大象传媒

'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Rick Allden of the CSV 大象传媒 Coventry and Warwickshire Action Desk on behalf of Nicki Gibson and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions'.

1940 continued

Like two 鈥楤ritish Tommy鈥檚鈥� in cross-fire, Liz and I scrambled to what we thought as the safety of downstairs. But no, as we entered the living room, there was an almighty 鈥榳hooch鈥�, and still intact the glass from the window caved in. We all rushed from the room, then I suddenly realised, my beloved greyhound had been left behind. Determined to die in the process if need be, I returned to rescue my pet. Instead of the heroic end I had envisaged, unscathed we joined the others to sit shivering on the cellar steps. The short-lived ordeal was abruptly finished by Mum declaring, 鈥滻f I鈥檓 going to die, I鈥檓 going to die in comfort.鈥� With that she stomped upstairs, with us following meekly behind. We spent the rest of the night my Mum and I at one end of the bed, and my friend and her mother at the other, tautly listening to wave up on wave of enemy aircraft throb overhead.
In the morning when our friends had gone, I went once more to look out of the bedroom window. To my absolute astonishment, with a black cross, emblazoned on its side, a stray German bomber was circling the town hall clock, and a moment later came the dull 鈥榗rumph鈥� of a bomb hitting the ground.
Later in the day, I went to examine the damage to the town. We had indeed suffered a near miss, for where once had stood a grocers shop, a few yards down the street, now was an ugly crater There was also a crater, outside the town hall, again narrowly missing the Queen Victoria statue, and another bomb had been dropped on the park of the same name, so completing the string. As for the off loading by the plane I had seen, it had missed the munitions factory it was meant for, and fallen on some allotments at the bottom of town. From later reports, apparently the allotment holders were more concerned with the destruction of their vegetables than they were of escaping extinction. At the end of the day that for me had been lifted out of the humdrum, Mum and I while listening to the wireless, heard the arch-defector Lord Haw Haw, sneering apologies for the bombs dropped on 鈥淩oyal Leamington Spa.鈥�

1941

My second encounter with mortality came, when I was out for a walk with my dog. In those days youngsters could travel miles alone, without much risk of interference, and I had decided to walk to the Bull fields in Warwick. These fields slope steeply down to the river Avon, and I was on the high ground when I heard a plane. It was flying very low and I stopped to admire it, but as a man walking his dog by the river below, shouted frantically 鈥淒uck!鈥� I did to the rat-tat-tat of flashing machine gunfire. As the plane swooped towards me I saw only too clearly the grinning goggled and helmeted face of the pilot. After we had watched the plane recede to a small spec in the distance, without further communication, the man and I continued on our separate ways. My only thought was that it was like being in a movie. The same might be said of the rest of the war.

This story was donated to the People鈥檚 War website by Nicki Gibson, of the Leam Writers. If you would like to find out more about Leam Writers call 0845 900 5 300.

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