Hampshire

A Dose of Epsom Salts

These recollections are by Malcolm Ernest Stroud, talking about his late brother Peter Arthur John Stroud,...

In Search of Harry, Just Before D-Day

The story starts at Easter 1944 when I met my wife-to-be, Ivy, for the first time at the wedding of mutual...

Emergency Cream and Soya Marzipan: Christmas Cakes in 1943

After Christmas, every customer who had one of our unique cakes complained... about the unconventional...

From Country Girl to Factory Girl

I can't remember how much we earned, but I can recall that as I was only nineteen years of age, I did...

Liberation 1944 (D-Day): The Great Adventure

An impromptu football kick-about quickly started, in the course of which, a large Irish gunner named...

D-Day: Childhood Memories in Portsmouth

On reaching the pathway to the front gate I was amazed to see Army vehicles parked outside our house. The...

D-Day as a Child

During World War Two, unbeknown to us, Gosport was designated a major jumping-off point for troops and...

D-Day: Run-in at Rivabella

The platoon, 18 Platoon, D Company, of which I was platoon sergeant, consisted of the platoon officer and...

The Runaway Train

In 1944 my driver and I were working a train of petrol to Southampton Docks: 46 wagons of petrol in...

My Birthday Party, 1944

Nan will make you a cake with six pink candles, and we'll have red and green jelly too," she...

Agnes' story

From there we were sent to Oswestry and formed the 467th Heavy Mixed Ack Ack Battery. After two weeks we...

Surrender in the Name of the King!

Mary Lees was a WAAF stationed at Ford and her best friend Audrey Hirst a WAAF stationed at Tangmere....

Overlord

Householders dragged their piano outside for a great singsong and soldiers threw down their coppers for the...

The Midnight Tram

Until that time my aunt had been employed in the Town Transport office for a Mr Bartholomew whom she had...

Memories of a Petersfield Firewoman

At 17, I joined the National Fire Service in Petersfield as a part time firewoman....

D-Day Strawberries and Gangrene

During the D-Day period I was a Red Cross VAD working as an Operating Room Assistant at the Royal Naval...

D-Day: Father and Son Reunited

He departed from Lee-on-Solent late on 5 June 1944, sailed through the night and landed at 07:30 on 6 June...

A Three-Year-Old's Recollection

His name was Sapper Carter, David Arthur, Number 1 Section 672 Artisan and Works Company, Royal Engineer...

Child's Eye: Collecting Shrapnel

All small boys had a shrapnel collection, usually in a brown paper bag. The high temperatures experienced...

A Premonition

During the war my cousinwas married to Norman Hawkins and he was serving in Normandy. Alice's father,...

Halle Story

I followed quietly, and found mother holding Dads lifeless hand, Ruth still supporting herself against...

Memories of WW2

All the Colonel asked me was "which unit were you with before you were commissioned?". When I told...

An evacuee, I be...: Near Andover

Eventually my mother, my younger sister and I were taken in by a farmer and his wife to their Downham farm...

My Last Mission with the Dutch 320 Squadron

I like to express my sincerest thanks to the Canadian Orthopedic Surgeon and his assistants of the Royal...

Perlethorpe to Portsmouth part 2

Later, that morning we were to lay off Omaha beach to assist the Americans who were having trouble getting...

Travels of a Captain R.E. (Searchlights)

The terrible war in France, Belgium and Holland, with the German Panzer Divisions racing through the top...