大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from CSVBerkshire on behalf of June Hodges and has been added to the site with her permission. June fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Childhood experience in Coventry

I was eight years old at the beginning of the war in 1939 and living in Yorkshire with my parents and five brothers and sisters. It was all very quiet, we were not really aware of the war at all. My father was a miner and became very ill with miners' disease.

We moved to Coventry to be near other members of the family. Dad was very ill and in bed most of the time. Mum had to support us all and found work in a munitions factory. We children worried about her as we heard of accidental explosions in the factory. I remember being frightened most of the time. During the air raids we used to hide under the table. The next morning walking to school we saw the devastation and wondered what all the men were doing among the bombed buildings. Mum had to tell us they were looking for those people who had been killed. Fortunately our own home was never hit. Sometimes we were only at school for half a day because of the raids. I remember looking up into the skies at night which were full of search lights and seeing the enemy aircraft. I am still afraid of the dark.

Mum took us to see the remains of Coventry Cathedral after it was bombed. It was here where my sister, at the age of nineteen, met an American service man. When she first brought him home Dad was horrified - he said he did not want any Yanks in his house! But he was a lovely man and eventually won him over. They were married and my sister was one of those girls who went out after the war on a ship to America not really knowing what she was letting herself in for. Fortunately she was one of the lucky ones and they were very happy. After thirty years they came back to Coventry and saw the charred wooden cross of the Cathedral - he wanted to see again where they met. Sadly, he died soon after the holiday. I went out to Pennsylvania to see my sister recently and we celebrated her eightieth birthday.

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