大象传媒

During WW2 I worked at Barnetts Naval outfitters in Queen Street, Portsmouth. This was bombed during the blitz of 1941. In January during the first raid the shop was badly damaged and we spent all the next day trying to salvage the contents of the shop... but on the next night the Germans returned and completely demolished the shop. These were incendiary raids. Our boss had quite a lot of naval shops - he was a Jew. On the day after the second raid we were just going home, when we met Mr Barnett who owned the shop. He asked us where we were going - and we told him the shop had been raized to the ground... and laughed. It was just nervous tension, we did not think it was funny - but I often wonder if he thought we were laughing at him - but this was definately not the case.
After this I volunteer to go into the typing pool - the SNSO in the Dockyard, I really wanted to go into the WRENS, but when the war broke out I wasn't old enough.
I worked for a naval commander, but it wasn't a very busy office. We dealt with refueling small ships.
On March 10 ,1941 - Portsmouth suffered its second blitz, these were more of the heavy explosive type. My house was damaged and we had to go to a rescue centre.
We (my mum dad and I - my other sister had been evacuated to South Wales) slept in blanket on the floor, they took all our details - but we weren't there very long as we had an aunt and uncle living nearby, so we went to live with them until our house was repaired. My father, who finished his time in the Navy in 1938, was recalled, and then eventually invalided out, but then worked in the dockyard.
Early in the war we went to South Parade Pier to a dance when they suddenly stopped the music and announced that Winston Churchill had been made Prime Minister... and everyone started stamping and cheering. I don't know if that made any difference to the war, but everyone was very please - I suppose it made us feel that we were going to win the war tomorrow!
My son was recently reading a book about WW2 and said to me that so may troops were embarked from Portsmouth - did I see any of it? But I said I didn't. We were aware of things happening - but didn't see any of it. There was so much going on, we learned to keep out mouths shut. There were always rumour going around that such and such a ship was in harbour, but we kept quiet about everything.
I know a lot of towns in England had a blitz, but living on the coast, it was night after night, after night. Often planes just unloaded their bombs on the way home - but I think the sound of the guns was worse
On the day before Christmas Eve there was a terrific explosion near the hospital and there was about three streets destroyed by one bomb, They said the crater was big enough to put a cathedral in. It was Conway street, and the devestation was as if a pack of cards had fallen down. No one knew what type of bomb it was - there were rumours that it was a land mine, but it has been said that it is one of the unexplained mysteries of the war, what was the actual bomb that caused such a massive explosion.
My husband was on the HMS Indominable, which was torpoed, and they had to close the watertight doors to enable the ship to return to America for repairs, Unfortunately there were men on the other side of the doors, and when they got in port, my husband said he would never forget the opening of these doors, It was a terrible moment for him.
If anyone reads this and remembers me Dorothy Bucknall, they can ring me on 01905 610874.
More to come!