Beginning Of The Second World War

A Memory of Broughty Ferry.

My family, James and Isa Lewis, brother James and myself lived in a semi-detached villa on Monifieth Road, Broughty Ferry opposite the school, for a period before and after the Second World War commenced. There was a large back garden which I think went down to the railway line. One night my dad took James and I (I would have been 7) out into the garden in the pitch blackness of blackout and we watched as hoardes of German planes travelled north, later to find out that they had bombed Aberdeen. It was a weird experience. My dad went to the Army and Mum moved us to a house in Baxter Park Terrace in Dundee because the threat was that foreign troops would be billetted in any house which had spare room and we certainly had that. The day before we actually moved, word reached us that bombs had fallen on Baxter Park Terrace and Mum hurried up to find out the truth. In fact, two time bombs had landed in the bottom section of Baxter Park and were removed by lorry to be exploded out in the Murroes. My brother and I watched as these bombs were loaded onto the lorry. I spent the next years growing up in Baxter Park Terrace where the Park was our playground. Happy years for the children.
My friends and I cycled frequently to The Ferry, Monifieth, Carnoustie and when we felt really energetic, to Arbroath. I have recently found family through the Internet who live in Arbroath now, previously in Monifieth and we have exchanged lots of family history not known to either of us. We had no contact previously and yet our mothers were cousins living in Dundee.

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