大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by Mrs Hillson of the County Heritage Team on behalf of Mr & Mrs Hughes and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

Mr Hughes

I was 13 when war broke out. At fourteen I worked in Somerset House. I can remember very clearly when going up to London on the train German planes (FW190) flew very low and close to us, they were on their way to bomb another destination.

I was in the Air Training Core and came to Felixstowe in 1943 to a training camp - we were in tents near the Herman De Sterne building.

I remember when the oil refineries were bombed in the night - the skies lit up and it looked like daylight - they burned for two or three days.

I was in the Air Force then was transferred into the army due to the heavy losses in the army on D Day. I landed in 1945 in Ostend. I remember the devastation in Hamberg when the war finished, the bombed buildings and white sheets hanging out of the windows.

Mrs Hughes

I was 11 when the war broke out. I remember walking to shcool when a German plane flew over us very low and we hid in the bushes.

My father was in the National Fire Service - he volunteered as he always wanted to ride on a fire engine! However I remember him with his eyes red and sore from the smoke of all the fires he was fighting and it was obviously very traumatic at times. When the warehouses were bombed fat ran out of them and caught fire.

We lived in Streatham and my sisters and I were evacuated to Horsham but asked to come home as were so home sick. Then we were evacuated to Paignton and looked after by an elderly couple but my memory was of always being hungry there. We came home again. However when the blitz started my mother took us to Berkshire and we rented out a cottage near family.

My mother never showed fear in front of us and even going into the air raid shelter she sometimes made a picnic to take with us. She was a wonderful mother.