A Dorset Childhood

When I lived in Ferndown during the war years 1939-45, German Bombers flew over my home on the way to the Midlands, dropping any remaining bombs on our area.
As a child of nine years it was very stressful, my father was an air-raid warden. Incendary bombs dropped many times, gas masks had always to be carried,school was an hours bus journey away.
Opposite my home was a very large house accomodating many evacuees from London.We had a little girl staying with us who became very homesick and eventually went home.
We had a farm with a very large garden and surounding fields. One day soldiers,tents and tanks appeared in the garden- next day was D Day and the invasion!
From my parents bedroom I remember seeing at night a red sky it was flames from the bombing of Southampton.
A landmine which fell three miles away caused the ceiling in my parents bedroom to collapse, had my father been sleeping there he would have been killed. I was lucky the ceiling in my room fell around my bed and I was untouched.
As we all know food was rationed but we were lucky we had chickens, geese and other farm produce.

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