World War II experiences!

Horace A. Basham (horace@HBASHAM.PL.NET)
Mon, 16 Dec 1996 19:54:34 -0500 

>At 10:54 AM 12/4/96 -1000, you wrote:
>>My name is Supardek Sasomsub.  I am a student at Kaimuki High School in
>>Honululu, Hawaii.  I am doing The World WarII Project as library work
>>study.
>

Hi I am Horace A. Basham ex RAF engineer. I'd like to tell you about
something of our life in London before I was in the RAF.. I lived with my
parents in West Ham in the Eastend of London in the docks area. Which were
heavily bombed during the big blitzes.

Often my mother was at home alone with our small dog, of indefinable
breeding. She was what you might call a Hienz 57 Varieties. That did not
mean she had no intelligence. I taught her many useful things like staying
put until called. I even got her to do things on silent commands. How well
she would have suited some elements of the military if they ever knew
about her. Thank God they never did.

Now my mother was partly deaf. So very often when she was busy doing the
household cleaning she would not hear the air raid warnings. Floss the dog
would if out in the back yard go to the scullery door and make a big fuss.,
until mother took notice. Or if Floss was indoors would run back and forth
to the back door wanting mother to follow her. Mother would then know
something was up. She would collect her and our valuable documents and
cash, which was not much, and go into the Anderson shelter in the back
garden. Mother would not come out until the dog did, she would not leave
the shelter. Amazingly, Floss would not take heed of the `all clear' unless
the enemy planes were well out of the country. Yes she sometimes told us
in her way when danger was imminent, long before the warming was given. How
she differentiated between the sounds of the enemy planes from those of
the allies I will never know. But she did.

This amazing trait of Floss was and is not unusual. There are many stories
of such incidence.

I wish you all a happy Christmas, or which ever festival you celebrate with
your family at this time.

Horace A. Basham