Bedfordshire

In the RAF and De-mob

The RAF were quite proud of their image and were called 'The Brylcreme Boys'. You had a choice of a...

How I Lost My Brother Harold

My eldest brother, Harold, couldn't wait to join up and enlisted before he received his call-up papers....

Childhood in Newhaven

I lived in Newhaven in Sussex during the war, although I was evacuated for a while to Thurleigh in...

Cold Nights and Hot Cocoa

Bedford hadn't been hit too bad but we would often see the flashes of incendiary bombs and would scurry...

The BBC in Bedford

After that I worked in various departments, including the Music Dept when Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Arthur...

ENSA

Brenda Bartina, Yatsen was a conjurer, Irene Foster was a soprano and Pearl who was a dancer... All the top...

Vauxhall Motors

We ate in the Vauxhall canteen. I worked for Vauxhall until January 1946, when I left of my own accord...

Bedford ARP

I worked in an engineering plant in Bedford. In my spare time, I was an ARP warden....

The First V2 Rocket to Fall in Britian

Then i realised the darkness was caused by the blackout blinds falling down over the windows... On...

W. H. Allen's - WW2

One day a fellow worker found an incendiary bomb on his way to the factory and brought it in - unexploded....

Wartime memories beside an American airfield

One day we saw a Typhoon Bomber land on the airfield, jump up again and crash in the next field. We saw...

Passing Out in the RAF

Ronald Bennett joined the RAF on 30th January 1946 and was stationed at Kimbolton, Bedfordshire. Doris and...

Shaking Hands with the Queen

I remember on a foggy day a German bomber flying low overhead to drop a string of bombs which just missed...

Towed Home

He and ten other airmen and soldiers were towed on an ammunition barge by a French destroyer which cast...

A Grateful American ?????

What he did not tell them was that the night before a Sunday he was due to go around to the family...

All Gone!

All Gone! at the time of the rhine crossing, i was sitting in the living room, of our house in luton, with...

Childhood in Broom, near Biggleswade

When I was about 10 years old and living near Holme Mills on the River Ivel, there were Italian Prisoners...

Happy Endings

My name is June Small, I was born in Dick Whittington hospital Highgate, London on 12/6/35 the third child...

My Grandma

Only one child, a girl... I am interested in the war as all of my grandparents were involved and this is...

Outstanding Memories: A Beer Bottle Full of Paraffin

She hurriedd off and managed to get an empty one pint beer bottle- I think it was a brown al bottle- and...

Bedford War Memories

So my my mum and dad were my godparents. The only memories I have of WW2 are the sirens, and that my...

Mr & Mrs Vasen & Rae- 'A home at last'

There was no main sewer in the village, and people relied on "the spout" as it was known for water,...

Village in War Time

So they suggested that they all went to Eaton Bray for safety, as the eldest sister lived there. But the...

The Bombing in Albert Street

I was in bed, and the first explosive insendry bombs dropped and demolished a row of houses that had been...

Evacuation: London to Bedford

My brother was 10 and I was 9 and we went with our school to cricklewood lane station to be evacuated with...

From Glenn Miller to Columbo

We saw Glenn Miller, Vera Lynn, Jimmy Miller of the Squadronaires, compered by Frank Engleman....