大象传媒

I was born in Folkestone Kent in 1935.At outbreak of war i was only five and for the first three years i have vivid memories of the air war raging over the south coast.With my two mates we used to watch as the Spitfres and Hurricanes from RAF Hawkinge engage the enemy planes in the skies overhead.Folkestone area was a great military garrison and we as kids would go up to the camps to talk to the soldiers and hear there stories.Then when the Americans came into the war not far from where i lived was Dibgate camp,It was here that the American forces were under canvas.We would go round the tents getting chewing gum and candies and the famous Hershie bars.
Towards the end of the war we started seeing the flying bombs or doodle bugs as they were more commonly known over head.I remember We watched one day as a spitfire shot one down and it destroyed the Vicarage and part of the orchard attached which to us kids was great,as it was a walled orchard and after this incident it left a great gap for us to get into the orchard.
At the end of the war the army camps at Shorncliffe became camps for the British Liberation Army or BLA camps as they were known.It was great going up there and roaming around the barracks listening in awe to the stories the soldiers told us.Sometimes there was an added bonus, they would give us the odd souvenier and foreign currency which as kids we treasured.
Folkestone harbour was also an MTB base as well as a base for Airsea rescue boats and many a day was spent on the harbour wall watching the activity.The war years for me were happy years,we had hardships but on the whole we got by we had to.Sadly the world has changed since those years and we won't see there likes again.The companionship and everyone helping where they could.
I remember about the middle of the war going into Folkestone to go down to the harbour to watch the boats.Whilst there an air raid sounded and we ran an hid under the railway arches thet lead down to the harbour.It was terrifying listening to the bombs dropping.When the all clear went we could,nt believe the devistation.Old Folkestonr harbour area was a mass of cobbled streets and old shops but much of it was destroyed in bombing raids.I remember walking home along Tontine street and seeing what i thought at the time was bodies all over the road,but they were taiors dummys blown out of shop windows.We were quite scared at the time but soon laughed about it after.