The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 51 No.4 | March 2025

Member’s article

Beaufighter painted by Ernest Tranter

commanding officer. We found his head, next day, crushed up in his helmet right on top of the roof of the headquarters. We had a scary 1941, when an invasion was expected. At dawn and dusk we had to stand to in little slit trenches around the aerodrome. I had a Tommy gun and two clips of ammunition and 4 hand grenades, but that wouldn’t have lasted me for long and I wouldn't have lasted long either. Fortunately, the paratroopers never came. Our bombers went over and destroyed gliders, landing craft and troop concentrations, so Hitler called his invasion off.

Food was rationed. You could be imprisoned for wasting bread but surprisingly no one starved. In fact people were fitter than now, we probably overeat now. There were British restaurants you could go to if you were in a strange city, and these were held in public halls and staffed by the WVS. There you could always get a meal, usually faggotts or rissoles or something like that. We forgot the taste of luxuries like ice cream and bananas and oranges, and you can imagine our joy when the war was over and we tasted our first ice cream. Probably the most depressing time of the war

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