Diary of Phyllis Bethel of Topsham Devon

An account of her travels with her husband and her daughter Marion from Wiesbaden in Germany and the Second World war in Topsham Devon as written in her diaries between 1929 and 1953.

11th April 1941

Sirens from 10 - 2.30am Did not get to sleep until 3.00am planes roared non stop over Topsham. Read two first chapters of my story to the family. Marion rolled with laughter, about Miss Natt and the cat. I take her as a judge of what I write as it is to be a children's story. After we went to bed, she told me I had better not make the boy older than thirteen, for she did not think I could manage him otherwise. She thought I knew more about girls than I did about boy. Today Good Friday a flock of sheep went past our window, they stretched from our house all the way down the road to the cottages.

8th April 1941

9.15pm sirens. 10.00pm all clear and another alert from 2-2.30am but I let the family sleep through it. Ann came and offered us another kitten as a cat belonging to a woman who already has six cats, was going to have kittens and Ann said she would have too many if she kept kittens also!
Daddy has made several pretty chairs,one a rocking chair for Ann. She is always bringing us wild flowers. It is awfully difficult to remain quiet and not call to Bertie when I hear sirens at night, but I do not want to wake Marion unnecessarily.

7th April 1941

Daddy's birthday. Last night 3 alerts between 10.30 and 3.00am 6pm another one today and at 9.00pm until 5am.

6th April 1941

54.45 - 6.15pm an alert. From 10.30 to 12.30 there were no less than 4 alerts. Bertie had gone to bed when the last one sounded, but he got up again and dressed, then went back to bed and asleep. At 3.00am the all clear sounded. I pity the poor ARP wardens, chasing back and forth from their homes. A husband and wife belonging to our section have 1/4 mile to walk to their post in Denver House from behind Water Tower. The home Guard practise in the paddock behind us belonging to Pyne's.