大象传媒

I was born and bred in Portsmouth.War broke out when I was 6 years old.My parents owned a small business in a market street,close to Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.This was an obvious target for German Bombers at beginning of the war,when they were planning a UK invasion,as the Royal Navy would have ben a major obstical to there plans,and had to be neutralised.The area in and around Portsmouth Dockyard,was subject to intensive bombing in the early days of 1940,and my parents were bombed out of there shop,and lost there livelyhood.My parents later rented a house on the out skirts of Portsmouth,at Porchester,which was once a Roman port,and fortification(the remains are still there.)..but in March 1941 we were bombed out again,the property receiving a direct hit.I recall seeing,the following morning, a large hole in the ground,where it once stood.My father had arranged for my mother,myself and two brothers to be with friends that night,in the country,when it became evident that a large bombing raid was building up.We then moved to another rented property on the Eastern side of Portsmouth,at Langstone harbour.Near to our house,which overlooked the sea inlet there,was based an AA and Searchlight Battery,and many times,during the remaining days of the war,they were called to action.Sometimes I would sneak out of the airaid shelter in our garden,to watch them across the way,searching the sky with there searchlights,and firing there anti-aircraft guns,when they had targeted there light on a German Aircraft,which was to me,an exciting time.
The following morning,when walking to school,my friends and I,were able to find littering the streets,chunks of shrappnel,or tail fins of fire bombs,which we would proudly display as our war trophies,at school.My father,was then employed,away from home,working at a factory near Bournmouth,producing aircraft engines.I cannot recall how my mother managed to feed us three boys,with the tight rationing we had at that time,but we never seemed to be short of basic food stuff,such as vegtables,which would be considered now a healthy diet.At sometime in 1944,a landmine bomb,was dropped at the end of our road destroying several houses,and shattered all the windows,and damaged the roof of ours.Later and throughout that year,and into the early part of 1945,many V1s(doodlebugs)could be seen coming in from France across the water mostly on route to London.They could be heard quite plainly by the engine noise they made.The AA Battery across the way,would begin blazing away when they were in range,and I and my friends would be sitting on our backgarden wall cheering them on,until mother would yell at us to get in the shelter,because of the falling shrapnel.
Sometimes however,the "doodlebug" engine would stop,which of indictated that the V1 was coming down,and then explode where it landed,on these occasions,we needed no help,or encouragement to take shelter.In June 1944,I recall all the roads,for many miles inland, leading to the Southsea sea front,packed with vehicles,tanks,and soldiers,building up to Normandy invasion.German air-raids from then on were non exsistant,and life for us became quiet,in comparision to how it had been.I can look back now,and know that I lived through great world events,and,from a young boys point of view,with some regret that those days came to an end.