大象传媒

I was 12 in 1940. My first memory of the war was being sent to the shops with my elder sister, to buy blackout material to cover the windows. I was often woken at night by the air-raid sirens. My mother, sister and I would go downstairs and sit behind the piano. My father and older sister were ARP wardens so they donned their steel helmets and arm bands and dashed to the ARP post, checking there were no lights showing in the street. They returned after the All-Clear sounded but could be called out several times in one night. We could hear the German planes overhead, their engines had a distinctive note.

Later on we had a Morrison Shelter, a large metal table with mesh sides erected in the Living Room. One day after listening to the News on the wireless at lunch time, I returned to school to tell my class-mates that France had surrendered. We were all shocked.

We were very lucky compared to London and other cities as Salisbury was never the target. We believed that the Germans used Salisbury Cathedral to fix their position, before heading to the real target. Only a few bombs were dropped on the outskirts of the city, probably jettisoned on the way home.

Once I heard machine guns firing and suddenly there was a German plane flying just above me. It was firing at a bi-plane in the distance, it had smoke pouring from its tail as it zoomed out of sight. I learned, later that it shot up several planes on the tarmac at nearby RAF Old Sarum and was itself shot down near the coast.

On another occasion I saw a British plane flying south with a parachutist dangling horizontally from the end of his harness. His parachute had caught on the tail-plane. We heard he was eventually dropped into Poole Harbour but sadly did not survive.

We had evacuees from Portsmouth Grammar School for Girls. They studied at the South Wilts Grammar School in the morning and with local pupils in the afternoon. With a few of my school friends, I volunteered to be a Messenger. In the event of a raid, which cut telephone/electricity lines, we were to carry messages from the Town Clerks Office on our bicycles. We would spend a lot of time outside. I remember when we were working by the river, we spotted a shell partly buried in the grass. We dug it out and took it to the Police Station. They told us we shouldn鈥檛 have touched it as it was still live.

Living on the edge of Salisbury Plain; surrounded by Military Camps, the town was always full of servicemen and women: Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, Poles and later large numbers of Americans. One summer evening in 1943, the Americans, erected a boxing ring in Victoria Park. We were on double summer time so it was light at 11.00pm. we saw the World Heavy-Weight Champion, Joe Louis, in an exhibition match with our Middle- Weight Champion, Freddie Mills.

The night before D Day was amazing, we were woken by the roar of aero-engines. Looking out of the window, the whole sky seemed full of planes, many pulling gliders and for the first time they had their navigation lights on. We knew something special was happening but did not know what. Next morning we knew D Day had arrived.

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