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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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ww2 memories

by susie-bowe

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Archive List > United Kingdom > London

Contributed by 
susie-bowe
People in story: 
Mrs. Edna Maynard
Location of story: 
London
Background to story: 
Civilian
Article ID: 
A4191770
Contributed on: 
14 June 2005

I was 17, i remember most vividly the battle of Britain. I wasn't evacuated and i worked as a civil servant in Woolwich arsonal for about 84 hours a week- 8 till 8!as it was easier to find jobs when the men were away.
On Saturday, September 7th, or 'Black Saturday' when we were short of aircrafts and used spitfires and were taught to recognise them. There was a beautiful blue sky and we could see everything that happened in the air!
We called the battles 'dog fights' and could hear the machine guns and airaplanes from miles away.
My worst memories were during the blitz-when i could hear and see people being killed in the air. in 1941, my grandfather was in hospital and because we lived in the London the patients were evacuated, and as my mother and i were waiting at the bus stop after visiting him we were being almost hit with machine guns, which are quite different to doodle bugs (bombs) at first we thought it was a broken engine-we had to hide in a ditch!
I had 2 older brothers, the younger (by 7 years)who had been a soilder since 1932 and during the war travelled alot to the middle-east and Egypt, and the older (by 11 years) went to work at Bletchley park as a code-breaker, as he was a linguist.
my father was also a regular soilder, but died in 1939 when i was 16.
When i left my job, i went to live in London where i witnessed many bomb attacks. so when i went to work one morning i found that my office had been blown up along with the fire-watchers. as it was a 10 mile trip to work. By this time i was around 18.
I remember also the dances, and when the Americans came after 1941-with many sweets! i found the rations just bearable as my mother was resourceful.
I met my husband during the war, he was our next door neighbour. and i married in 1943 when i was 22, and the war ended around that time in 1945-so i could have never of have met him if the war wasn't going on! My husband never had to fight in the war (even though he wished to be a fighter pilot) as he was training to be an engineer. Nobody in my family was ever wounded during the war.
I had an anderson shelter in my back garden and had to sleep in there for months at a time!
I made many new friends during the war, and i also learnt how to start gardening or 'dig for victory!'as my grandfather was ill. To keep my spirits up during the war, i read, visited to the cinema,went to dances, listened to the radio and went out with friends-so i din't ever remember being bored.

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