大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Shelagh Cassidy of the CSV 大象传媒 Coventry and Warwickshire Action Desk on behalf of Mr R H Perry and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I lived in Meriden during the war. on the A45 five miles from Coventry. I remember Sunday morning in September, 1939, listening to the radio and the then Primeminister, Neville Chamberlain, saying that we were at war with Germany, I was then eight years old.

The raid on Coventry started early I remember, the sirens went and we got out of bed and went downstairs, we didn't have a shelter so we sat under the kitchen table. We could hear the planes going overhead they had a distinctive throb, throb, throb. We had the odd bomb drop somewhere close and felt the ground shake. this lasted all night.

The next day at school we were allowed to put our heads on the desk and go to sleep for a couple of hours. For a short time afterwards we only went to school in the afternoons. as pupils and staff from Frederick Birds school in Coventry used our school in the mornings as their school had been damaged by bombs.

The second big raid on Coventry is the only time I felt frightened, as usual we had gone down stairs but this time we sat in the cupboard under the stairs as this had been shown to be the safest place. The planes were going overhead and then all of a suddent we heard a big bang outside and the whole house shook and the windows rattled and if they hadn't taped them I'm sure they would have shattered.

This went on all night and I felt less frightened when told that it was an anti aircraft gun that had turned up in the field next to our house after we had gone to bed. After breakfast the next morning we rushed out to have a look at this gun but it had gone all that was left was trampled grass where it had been.

Later on in the war we had an American military hospital placed in Packington Park and at assembly we were asked not to bother them if we saw them walk into the village.We would know them because of their distinctive blue uniforms. It was explained to us that these soldiers and airmen would have some horrible experiences and the last thing they needed was a "gaggle" of children following them.

I imagine a lot of Americans now in their eighties talking about the English reserve and saying even the children don't talk to you. If any of these men read this I'm sorry we wanted to but it just wasn't done when you were told not to.

Early in 1945 a whole lot of American tanks came and parked in the fields alongside a lane we knew as the Hampton straight mile, now we used to go down and talk to these soldiers, they used to give us gum. This was different from English gum.

Then one morming the lads who lived at that end of the village came to school and told us they had all gone and a few days later on the radio we heard about D Day.

Years later it came out that on that day some tank landing craft had dropped their tanks off in the wrong place and some had sank. I often wondered if those soldiers we had talked to had been there.

My last memory is very pleasant, we had some Italian prisoners billeted in Meriden Hall and on V.E. Night, a warm night lying in bed with the windows open and this singing over the village, I've never heard singing like this before, it went on for some time.

Next day I was tole it was these Italian prisoners who had congregated around a statue of the crucifixion, that's next to the pool in the village and had sung in the knowledge that they would be going home.

You can see from this I didn't suffer like a lot of children in the war and at quiet times I do think of them.

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