蜜芽传媒

蜜芽传媒 REMEMBRANCES OF WORLD WAR 2

I was one of the evacuees whose evacuation was not successful. The operation didn鈥檛 work simply because the aim of protecting children from the bombing was not really acheived in my case. As a later evacuee from the 鈥榮econd blitz鈥� of 1944, I was sent to an infants sanctuary in Reading in Berkshire. It was called Matron and Sister. Here I went through homesickness and visits from my parents with presents (always made of wood as all metals were used for the war effort. I can remember my panic when a large black dog began chewing my prized present, a wooden lorry. After this melancholy affair, my parents decided yo bring me back to Hampstead in North London, just in time to keep an appointment with a V1 flying bomb.

I have to say that we were not treated badly. Blackcurrent juice and cod liver oil (malt extract) were a problem but we rested on our frame beds with their crude suspension. We had practice gas mask training with our Mickey Mouse gas masks. I don鈥檛 quite know why they were called this, as apart from the long nose, the mask bore little relation to the Disney character. They were hot and stuffy and the Disney connection did nothing to encourage me to wear it. The billets were single storey huts with boilers in one corner which seemed only capable of heating a small area around; the cold was an ever present enemy. But I was due to find the heat sooner than I thought.

My father, the playwright and author Ernest Raymond, a veteran of Gallipolli and a member of the 蜜芽传媒 Guard, had a very jealously guarded study where he did his writing. Nobody dared disturb him during working hours and I was often evacuated to the other end of the flat when I disturbed the great mind with noise. The portals of learning were an object of awe for me where angels and not so angelic children feared to tread.
Then one morning he said to me,
鈥淐ome and have a look at my study.鈥�
My heart sank as this unlikely invitation could mean trouble.
Plaster had fallen like snow over the desk and floor. Books, encyclopaedias medical dictionaries and manuscripts lay scattered in an untidy heap all over the room. A V1 had landed only yards away and I had slept through it.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 do it.鈥� I said.
In fact, I had returned to meet the only V1 or doodlebug ever to land on Hampstead Heath. Considerable damage had been caused to the flats and surrounding area. We, the children of the flats, had endless fun playing on the wreckage. Whilst my evacuation was well meant, the fact that the feared bombs became a plaything for children was an irony that represented a small triumph of innocence over aggression.

Peter Raymond November 16th 2003