War Memories from Bruce Hall
I originally moved to Hampshire when my father worked on The Empire Flying Boats at Hythe. This was about 1935. We subsequently moved to Croydon where father worked still for Imperial Airways but moved back to Hampshire in 1939 or 1940 where we lived in Blackfield until about 1947
I remember all the war activities from the Battle of Britain, the bombing of Southampton, the D-day build ups and many incidents on the way. There were British, Canadian and American soldiers camped in the copse at the end of our lane at various times. Up to D-day there were American troops parked all along the roads to Lepe and stretched all the way to Southampton. If we went to Southampton on the bus we had to show Identity cards to get home again. We used to swim at Lepe and I remember the installations being built there.
I went to school at Brockenhurst and passed Beaulieu aerodrome every day. I saw the Junkers 188 shot down from our back door. I visited the site the same evening at Exbury and stole some machine gun ammunition from the wreckage. Much more comes to mind.
Added by Bruce Hall