大象传媒

I was three years old when the war began and so I grew up thinking that war was just a way of life and that was what happened. It never occurred to me that people could live without war.

I can not remember seeing my father until I was nine as he was in the regular army and so was there at the start of the war. He must have come home on leave for the first few years but I can never remember seeing him. I can, however, remember the excitement when he came home when the war ended. We had letters from him quite regularly and I still have some of these.

I can remember going to school and waiting for the air raid warning to sound because if we were more than half way to school we had to carry on and go into the shelter at school but if we were nearer home then we had to go back so we always hoped we would be nearer to home.

It was a time when neighbours all pulled together and many nights were spent sleeping downstairs in a big double bed with the children from next door who had come round when the warning sounded, or sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs. On one of these occasions I and my brother were in bed when an air raid took place and as usual my mother took us downstairs (a double bed was kept in the living room) I had got downstairs and my mother was following with my baby brother when there was a loud bang and the ceiling of the landing had come down as a piece of shrapnel had come through it and just missed my mother. We had an air raid shelter outside but that only housed frogs as it was cold and damp.

When the doodle bugs started to come over, we as children used to get really excited as we didn't realise the danger. We would listen for the engines to stop and then wait for the bang. One of these happened not far from our house, it landed in the cemetry at the bottom of our garden and a tin of vim which was on the window sill in the kitchen flew off and hit my aunt, who was staying with us, in the face and vim being white powder left her looking very pale.

On another occasion we were staying with my grandparents when a doodle bug came over. We were watching from the garden as the engines stopped and it soon became apparent that the bomb was going to land on a row of houses just over the railway line. Just as it was coming down a plane came across the sky and the pilot lifted the doodle bug with his wing and carried it over to a football pitch where it landed with damage but not as much as if it had landed on the houses. (I think the pilot was awarded for this but this would have to be verified).

Looking back now I can see how hard those times were but the friendliness that existed then can never be repeated and I feel glad that I grew up knowing how good people can be to each other when there is hardship. I am glad that I can now put the lights on at night and not have to worry about black outs but I would give anything to have the generosity and helpfulness of people that we knew then.

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