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Anne Doward nee Tansley
Biography of Ernest Tansley's daughter Anne. Writes of background and family. Gives service history of her father including joining, training in England and the United States and eventual posting to 57 Squadron at RAF Scampton. Writes of her memories…
My Maternal Grandparents - Their Family Childhood and Wartime Experiences
![MSaundersA[DoB]-171003-01.pdf](https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/square_thumbnails/1110/26180/MSaundersA[DoB]-171003-01.jpg "MSaundersA[DoB]-171003-01.pdf")
A document written as a Summer Project whilst Aidan was at school. She discusses their early years after her grandparents got married in London. During the war the family moved to Wales for safety. After the war John, (possibly her brother), became…
My recollections of the War - Alan Mann
He reminisces about pre-war and early war days as a schoolboy in Lewisham, recalling events at the beginning of the war. Includes photographs of aircraft and naval ships. He continues with history of events through the war's early years including:…
Interview with Alberto Dini
Alberto Dini recalls his wartime life in Trieste starting from the declaration of war until the end of the conflict. He describes life under the bombs, highlighting disruption of utilities, devastated streets and chequered schooling history. He…
Interview with Angelo Bencina
Angelo Bencina recalls wartime memories in Monfalcone: a cave being modified as a shelter; the descent of bright red and white target indicators at night; a bomb which narrowly missed him but did not explode; Window radio countermeasures being…
Interview with Paolo Vivoda
Paolo Vivoda remembers a bombing attack which started moments before the stage show of magician Delfo, during which his mother barely made it to the shelter and was injured; others died. Paolo lost contact with his parents, but was reunited with them…
Interview with Alberto Buvoli
Alberto Buvoli recalls his wartime childhood in Udine, where he lived in the railway station area. He describes how furniture was moved to a safer place at the onset of the war and explains air raid precautions, such as leaving the windows open and…
Interview with Inge Nicolis
Inge Nicolis, the daughter of a Swedish engineer faher and an Italian mother, reminisces about her wartime experiences in Milan. She stresses the sense of having been thrown into a tragedy and the anguish of not being able to evacuate Milan, on the…
Interview with Nino Tenca Montini
Nino Tenca Montini reminisces about his wartime experiences in Udine and the Friuli region. He describes the family shelter as a concrete reinforced basement, sparsely furnished with wooden benches. He recalls the urge to escape the vigilance of…
Interview with an eye-witness of Milan bombings
The interviewee describes two bombings in the Sesto San Giovanni and Niguarda areas, which he eye-witnessed. During the first, he was in a basement adapted as underground shelter: he recollects women reciting the rosary and a queasy sensation in the…
Interview with Piero Fiorot
Piero Fiorot reminisces about his pre-war life in Sacile: schooling; fascist paramilitary training and indoctrination; curfews; rationing; and doing business in a tightly controlled, closed economic system. He contrasts the relatively tranquil life…
Interview with Guido Toccacieli
Guido Toccaceri remembers his wartime experiences as a schoolboy in Milan: the day war broke out; food shortages; his father working at an airfield near Bergamo; train strafing; basements used as makeshift shelters; being evacuated outside Milan,…
Interview with Lidia Vendramin
Lidia Vendramin recalls her childhood in Sacile, including details on her primary schooling, family, and town life. She contrasts the public manifestations of joy the day the war was declared, with the shock and dismay of her parents, whose lives had…
Interview with Marco Pederielli
Marco Pederielli describes his father’s career as a Regia Aeronautica officer, providing details of his service in North Africa. He describes his personal situation after the fall of the Fascist regime, when he, reluctantly, joined the Aeronautica…
Interview with Ronald Roffey
Ronald was born in Charlton, London. He went to Charlton Junior School and was nine when war was declared. He remembered being fitted for a gas mask at his school. His aunt, who lived in Torquay, found a private billet for him and his mother in…
Interview with Mary Stopes-Roe
Mary (daughter of Sir Barnes Wallis) discusses her father’s design work and remembers both skipping stones on a river during holidays with her father and catapulting marbles over a washtub in their garden. She goes on to discuss the Eder Möhne and…
Bombers flying over San Giorgio di Nogaro
Bombers fly over a town. In the scene, every window is lit up. Civilians are running for shelter. A woman reaches out for her child. One man remains stationary and seems confused. The five aircraft are being targeted by anti-aircraft fire.
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Bombing of Dresden
Men, women and children flee in panic surrounded by fire and destruction. One man falls to the ground near a pylon. Two ships are visible in the background and the nearer of the two has taken a direct hit and exploded in flames. At the top of the…
Interview with David Brewster
David was born in 1931 in Sutton on Sea and recalls living in a spartan house with no toilet, lit by gas lights and with a water pump in the garden and his father keeping pigs to augment their income. His family ancestors had sailed to America in the…
Interview with Margaret Ottaway
Margaret Ottaway lived in Louth, the sixth of seven children, and tells of her childhood there. She describes an air raid shelter they had in the house. As a seven-year-old, Margaret witnessed an enemy air raid on 19 February 1941, which caused…
Interview with Elizabeth Ann Rogers
Elizabeth's earliest memories include the family’s Anderson shelter, later replaced by a Morrison shelter where she slept during air raids. She recalls the sound of planes overhead and the impact of nearby bombings, including shattered windows and…
Interview with Norman Rutherford. One
Norman Rutherford was born in Cleethorpes in 1931 and remembers as an eight year old child discussing with his cousin as to whether there would be a war. Norman recalls the sound of the air raid sirens and learning his multiplication tables in the…
Interview with Norman Rutherford. Two
Norman Rutherford discusses his schooling during the war and how few male teachers remained. He recollects the scarcity of food and the blackout. As a child he was briefly sent from his home in Cleethorpes to stay with his music teacher at…
Interview with Maureen Shirley Lill
Maureen Lill grew up in Louth during the war. She recalls the one night when a bomb destroyed the house of her school friend. Her father was in the Army and she didn’t see him for the duration of the war after he was called up. He had begun to read…
Interview with Edith Taylor
Edith Taylor (née Tate) grew up in Manchester and experienced the bombing of Manchester. When the war started, Edith, her mother and two siblings, were evacuated to Leek. Edith and her brother were separated from her mother and sister. They had two…