David Butler

I was 8 when the war began, and when the battle of Britain was on I was only 9. The first part I remember was the bombing of Kennedy.
I was in Wales when the war was declared, the Welsh people there were very kind, and the bank manager said I could stay with him. I take my hat off to him. But the Welsh were scared of getting invaded by Ireland.

We saw a spitfire come down; the pilot bailed out and another pilot covered him, as other planes would shoot at the pilots coming down; I have never heard a Merlin engine wail so much. There was a 4 engine aircraft, German, it had 3 of our fighters on its tail, you could see the bits coming off the plane, it came down into a station that had just been rebuilt, killing a few people. The day the Battle of Britain ended I remember seeing the Italian air force coming, funny looking planes, they were flying around very nicely, until our lot came, then they scattered like the winds. Sometimes a Spitfire would come down out of the clouds into a victory roll. The day before the blitz started my dad said we would go to my Auntie’s house for a week, because of the blitz. We went down into the shelter the first night of the blitz. Every night at 8 o clock the sirens would go off. If the cat came in we knew it would be a rough night, as the cat only came in when it was going to be a really bad night. We used to go out collecting the shrapnel, and the cones, getting up to houses that aren’t there anymore. We had a bomb in our garden at one time, but it was only small. The school was evacuated but I didn’t go with it, so I didn’t go to school for a about a year, when it came back there was a lot of daylight raids.
I remember one time when the British planes were doing daylight raids in Germany, I saw a flying fortress come back full of holes, propellers bent, and smoking like a chimney, I have no idea how it managed to keep in the air.
Doodlebugs were also a threat, I saw a fighter tip a Doodlebug, the Spitfires and Hurricanes weren’t fast enough, so a Mustang just tipped the doodlebug out of its path
My next-door neighbor was in the home guard, one time someone dropped flare, and all the home guard had a go at him with their rifles
There was rationing on, I would eat my cheese ration in one go. The sweet ration never had any sugar in them. We also had chickens, so we had people coming to us for eggs.
There was a queer atmosphere at the start of the war, people were helping one another but normally wouldn’t speak to each other, and after the war it all went back to normal

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.