Devon

A Small Boy's Plymouth Blitz

They gave up on London, at least temporarily, and went for the big port cities instead, Liverpool, Bristol,...

Further Snippets from Living Next to Devonport Dockyard

In the early days my Mum would take me to the Devonport Southern Railway station to watch the trains and...

My Life My War - Chapter 3a

Our instructor called us to attention and addressed us in a very low tone, “In one minute from now...

A Strange Kind of Normal: One Little Girl's Experience of the Plymouth Blitz

It was a short distance in yards, but it was a walk through a world that was very different to the daytime...

Some Wartime Reminiscences

SOME WARTIME REMINISCENCS by Keith Davidson, born 12 September 1932, then living at 111 The Avenue, West...

Memories of a Dartmouth Youngster

Dartmouth was a balloon station for ships proceeding up or down the English Channel, When not in use these...

My Life My War - Chapter 3b

Starting at the smaller four inch anti aircraft gun and its ammunition we progressed to the six-inch breech...

Bridge Of Fear

The Keyham area was very badly bombed, and once when the raids had been very bad, we were told in the...

Stale Cakes, Sugar Beet, Scabies and Special Custard - Memories of an Evacuee Boy's diet

Now after the Declaration of War we are to be separated, my brother John and I to be evacuated with our...

My Life My War - Chapter 5a

In one state of emergency, I was a gun captain and breech worker on a starboard six-inch gun, in another I...

Joyce's Life in Southway

During my training I worked in Plymouth City Councils Childrens’ Residential Home at Queens Gate,...

Teaching in Devon and Rescue work in Birkenhead and Merseyside

The young lady teacher was was in fact a Chagford girl, who after qualifying had got a post in a London...

Birdie and the Lobsters

The police car with Birdie and the lobsters arrived on the dock... While Birdie was boiling the lobsters...

The First News from Denmark

Minna's letter was written on the eve of her departure for a camping holiday in Salcombe, Devon, with a...

Childhood Pictures from the Devonport Blitz

It is an unusual album because it includes many sounds and smells: of our kitchen and the washhouse on...

Royal Engineers

I travelled to London to see Joan and on my first day there we talked about getting married. After a few...

How the War Came to Rural Devon

Recollections of the war years in some small Devonshire communities recorded by members of Silverton...

The Birch Family at War (Part 2) Evacuated to Devon and Dorset

I remember looking up at night and seeing the searchlights pick up a plane, it looked like a silver moth,...

War Time Childhood: In Downham and Devon

My father, who had served in Ypres, France in the first World War refused to use it and when he was not...

Story - John Bevan

But there weren't many German aircraft over Combe Martin. Combe Martin was fairly safe because it is...

"Why Does Hitler Want to Kill Me?": Part 1

My sister Win, who with her baby boy lived with us while her husband was in the army, had been blown over...

Evacuated from Chatham

Although we hadn't actually declared War on Germany until the invaded Poland, people from France,...

A Plymouth Andersen Shelter Tale

The back garden showed signs of early enthusiasm: a small lawn partitioned off with trelliswork, a wire...

A Childs Perspective

1 lived in what was commonly known as London's " Bomb Alley" boundaries on all sides of the...

Aunt's WW2 memories

It was very easy to see them because the sky was so lit up with the glow from so many fires burning...

A Teenager in the Plymouth Blitz

As our school was near the Devonport Dockyard and faced on to the perimeter boundary of the Royal Naval...