Memories of the War - Donald Davenport

Mr Davenport, aged 88.

Piece of shrapnel from an air raid. I was indoors and the plane dropped a bomb fairly near. There was a loud bang on the door. After the raid we went out and found that and there was a big dent in half door.

Spoon - he could not remember where he found this.

Hitler Youth Pin - Picked up in Germany after the war.

My family put up 2 French-Canadians in the war. I found what he thought was a fountain pen on the Downs. I showed it to the officers. We went to the officer's mess and showed it to the other officers. We all went back to the Downs and I showed them showed the place I had found it. Found more 'pens' - they were actually anti-personnel items that the Germans dropped to maim children. If I had taken the 'cap' off it would have burned me or blown my fingers off.

Messerschmitts would fire 'willy-nilly' down the streets as they flew back to Germany. I used to have a scarf that that a bullet went through. That was the closest I came to death during the war. It was unfortunately thrown away by my wife in about 1965.

D-Day June. Kids were in the playground and there was a tremendous noise like thunder. It was the guns firing from France - could be heard in Hove. It was the battleships firing to soften the beaches. Overhead planes were flying - the sky was black and it went on for an hour non-stop taking troops etc. Knew a glider pilot. He was wounded through the war. He had shrapnel in his head which couldn't be removed.

The beginning of the war I remember being on the station with a box with a gas mask and Mum had a respirator with the baby in it. About to be evacuated but Mum changed her mind and said, 'If we can't be a family together then we won't go.' Grandmother bedridden lived on the ground floor.

Jan 1939 - Grandfather come in. 'You've got to be brave, you've got to be strong. You're the man of the house. Your father's gone into the war to fight a bad man. You need to look after your mother until your father comes home.' You feel very important.

Played in the brass band. Played in St Valerie. I was staying with a chap who was in the Resistance in the war. There was something like a goalpost with 5 hooks in it outside the house. He came back from sabotaging and found his wife hanging from one of the hooks. They couldn't get him so got his wife. Rommel was given the job of reinforcing the coast from Brest to Bruges in case of invasion. He had heavy guns round Dieppe/St Valerie. Set the battalion of the Canadian Scottish and a Scottish regiment. They had to penetrate the harbour to test Rommel's defences. It was extremely heavily defended. The harbour was a horseshow so defended from both side. British allowed in and then were fired on. Didn't stand a chance. 3000 graves on the cliff. When the band went there I stood at one of the places where the machine guns were and re-envisaged the scene.