War time memories by Dawn Oaten

Dawn Oaten sent these memories in with her grandson, Ben, today for our World War Two Day. We hope she doesn't mind that we have shared them here.

My mother told me a story which happened during the Second World War when I was a baby. I was in my carrycot waiting to be fed with a gas mask at the ready. We lived with my grandmother in Stoke Village which was very near the dockyard. There was heavy bombing all around us because the Germans were trying to get their number one target - the dockyard. On one particular morning the siren went off warning everyone that air raids were about to happen. We all dashed to the air raid shelter at the end of the road. Some houses had shelters in their gardens, underground. We had just got inside when my mother realised that she had left my bottle in the kitchen. She dashed back and no sooner had returned safely with the milk when the house we lived in took a direct hit. We moved to Whitsands for a few months and lived in a two bedroom chalet with eleven other people. It was a safer place to be despite the overcrowding! When the bombers flew back to Germany across the English Channel any unused bombs would be dropped into the sea which you could see from the cliffs at Whitsands. We were eventually evacuated to Bude. Three families shared a house on the sea front. Sometimes the Germans would sink a ship in the Atlantic Ocean and the cargo would be washed ashore. Food was in short supply so when tins of corned beef and bananas were found on the beach, the local people ate well and would hide the food under the floor boards so they wouldn't go hungry. Sweets also were a rare treat....... but that's another story!