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Interview with Stuart Stephenson MBE
Stuart was five when war broke out and recounts some of his early memories.
In the early 1970s the Lancaster PA474 was flown to RAF Waddington from RAF Henlow ostensibly to be a gate guardian. In 1973 the Lincolnshire Echo announced that it was to…
In the early 1970s the Lancaster PA474 was flown to RAF Waddington from RAF Henlow ostensibly to be a gate guardian. In 1973 the Lincolnshire Echo announced that it was to…
Interview with Helga Wynne
Helga Wynne was born into a family of twelve in 1926 in Kiel, Germany. She describes her childhood and her father working as a shipbuilder in the dockyards. She left school at 14 and went to work on a farm. She fell through the hayloft opening,…
Interview with Sybil Green
Sybil was born in Bracebridge near Lincoln, she went to Bracebridge School then left at fourteen to work first at a Co-op store and then at and electric shop. Sybil talks about civilian life in wartime, her family working at Foster Quinns, fire…
Interview with Mary Stuart
Mary Stuart, nee Atkins, was the youngest of nine children who, during the Second World War, lived on the island of Malta. She tells of her love of aviation and how she spent time on the roof of her house when Spitfires flew over. Mary recollects…
Interview with Rosemary Lapham
Rosemary Lapham is the daughter of Roy Chadwick CBE, the designer of the Manchester and Lancaster aircraft. She tells her father’s story. Her father was born in 1893 and when he left school at the age of fourteen he became a draughtsman at…
Interview with Heather Hindley
Heather Hindley was a young girl living in Nottingham and attending private school when war was declared. She discusses air raids, sleeping in her grandparents’ shelter and rationing. She talks about the experience of moving to the countryside at…
Interview with Roy Eric Davidson
Roy was born in Lincoln in 1933 and was six years old when war broke out.
He left school at the age of 15 and went to work for Lincoln City Council in the Pension department and was called up for National Service in 1951, doing basic training at RAF…
He left school at the age of 15 and went to work for Lincoln City Council in the Pension department and was called up for National Service in 1951, doing basic training at RAF…
Interview with Royston Clarke and Diane Clarke
Warrant Officer Robert Royston Clarke joined the Royal Air Force in 1940 and flew in Lancasters.
He joined Bomber Command after seeing the bombing of Coventry.
Robert tells about bailing out and being manhandled by the local inhabitants before…
He joined Bomber Command after seeing the bombing of Coventry.
Robert tells about bailing out and being manhandled by the local inhabitants before…
Interview with Kenneth Angus
Kenneth Angus lived in Hull, and was 12 when war was declared. He discusses life on a farm after being evacuated, the bombing of Hull and his brother Harry Angus, who was killed flying as a wireless operator / air gunner with 44 Squadron from RAF…
Interview with Gavino Pala
Gavino Pala reminisces about his childhood in Sardinia, describing schooling and paramilitary training. Recollects the 17 May 1943 Alghero bombing, explaining how part of the population had left the city the day before and slept among olive trees,…
Interview with Benito Colonna
Benito Colonna reminisces about the bombings of Rimini and other wartime experiences. Benito was with his mother when he witnessed the 1 November 1943 bombing: he saw aircraft approaching and bombing the town, concentrating the attack on the railway…
Interview with Hans-Walter Bendzko
Hans-Walter Bendzko reminisces about his wartime experiences as a young boy in Berlin, before being evacuated. Describes his time at Wannsee, being properly looked after while surviving one of the Berlin bombings. Mentions incendiaries falling into a…
Interview with Liliana Kucic Podda
Liliana Kucic Podda recalls her early years in Fiume, stressing a serene childhood playing with her friends. Reminisces a severe bombing that hit the Whitehead torpedo factory and the ROMSA refinery - the latter burning for days - and mentions the…
Interview with Luigi Cabrini
Luigi Cabrini describes his daily life in a rural community stressing the labour-intensive nature of farming in wartime. Mentions Pippo bombing at night, and reminisces a chequered schooling history in Pavia and Voghera owing to strafing, bombings…
Interview with Marco Pederielli
Marco Pederielli describes his father’s career as a Regia Aeronautica officer, providing details of his service in North Africa. Describes his personal situation after the fall of the Fascist regime, when he reluctantly joined the Aeronautica…
Interview with a survivor of the Voghera bombings (informant C)
The informant recollects his wartime experiences in Voghera. Claims he has always had the gift of sensing impending events, the first episode being when he told his mother that aircraft are approaching before the siren had sounded, and therefore…
Interview with Carluccio Intropido
Carluccio Intropido recalls his early life as an orphan studying in Pavia at the Artigianelli, a boarding school providing technical training. He recalls that children used to watch aircraft en route to Milan, until Pavia was bombed owing to the…
Interview with Celestino Chiesa
Celestino Chiesa remembers his wartime memories as a schoolboy in Pavia, while he was attending the Artigianelli boarding school: food shortages; rationing; Pippo bombing at night; machine-gun nests along the Ticino river; a friend joining the…
Interview with a survivor of the Voghera bombings (informant B)
The informant recollects his wartime memories in Voghera. Emphasises how bombings, strafing, and Pippo flying at night became part of everyday life and how the population tried to cope. Gives a vivid and detailed account of the August 1944 bombing,…
A survivor of the Voghera bombings (informant A)
The informant reminisces about her wartime experiences in the Voghera countryside, at the time when her three brothers where enlisted and it was hard for her parents to run the farm.
She remembers how she narrowly escaped an aircraft trying to…
She remembers how she narrowly escaped an aircraft trying to…
Interview with Lidia Vendramin
Lidia Vendramin reminisces her childhood in Sacile including details on her primary schooling, family, and town life. 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 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 with…
Interview with Sandro Boiocchi
Sandro Boiocchi remembers wartime memories at Travacò, in the Pavia area. Mentions various episodes: food shortages, the black market, fascist and German roundups, Pippo flying at night, bombing of bridges, giving shelter to evacuees. Tells how…
Interview with Annamaria De Manzano Vici
Annamaria De Manzano Vici recalls her wartime childhood in Trieste. Describes the struggle of her women-only family, coping with fear, hunger, and difficulties in finding food supplies. Remembers the run to the public shelter and the terror felt…
Interview with Mariagrazia Sinigo Petrina
Mariagrazia Sinigo Petrina recollects her childhood in Trieste. Chronicles hardships during the war, her father enlisted in the Italian navy while she lives with her mother and grandmother. Describes how difficult was to find food and narrates some…