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This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Adam Jones on behalf of Gordon Roscoe and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

The period from the start of if the war to September 1941 does not hold allot of vivid memories for me but in 1941 things changed. I lived in Walkden and had won a place to Farnworth German School and started there then.

It was an unfortunate time to be going to a German school because of the war. All extra-curricular activity had to cease. Everyone had to leave at 3:30pm in case of air raids. All the school windows were either boarded or sand bagged over. It might have proved a bit over the top but at that stage nobody knew. Everything had to be treated as if Hitler was already marching up through Manchester. Every direction sign was removed, not only telling you which road to take between towns but also indicating where the post office, library or Town Hall etc could be found. Even the location of the local toilets was obliterated and us lads had vivid imaginations of loads of German soldiers roaming round the middle of Walkden desperately clutching their downstairs plumbing with agonising looks on their faces.

Every window where there was the slightest chance of a light showing had to be blacked out. You can imagine the multi various types of dark materials which were brought into play for this purpose. Old coats were opened up into squares and hung at windows in places where the buildings were only used at night like churches, they even painted the glass of the windows with black paint. There weren't too many cars about in those days but there were had a special lowered shield clamped over the front of their headlights to make them shine on the road but couldn't be seen from above. The curtain shops did a roaring trade in special black-out material which was a dark navy blue.

The police had a job knocking on doors to tell occupants they had a light showing. The bobby on the beat was still the strong arm of the law. Dixon of Dock green was a pretty accurate description of police activity in the forties.

Of course, as always happens when difficult and strange situations occur the Lancashire humour rises through and adversity and produces the laughs.

I remember one story of the bobby walking down a row of terraced houses at night. Like many of the houses they were worn so they had quite a dip in the middle. This allowed light to shine under the door and this bobby saw the light and knocked on the door and shouted "you've got a light shinning under your door; Germans could see it a mile off". To which came the reply "why they're not coming on their hands and knees - are they?

There was only 3 occasions in my memory when the Germans bombed Walkden. On all occasions they didn't do it intentionally, their navigation had gone a little askew and they thought they were bombing Salford or Manchester where the bombing was intense and ruthless with many people killed. As for Walkden one bomb was dropped in a field and did little damage except a few broken windows in houses in nearly Newearth Road. On another occasion a bomb dropped near Sandhole Colliery but not near enough to do any damage.

The third occasion was a bit more poignant. Sometimes the Germans would drop incendiary bombs instead of the large explosive ones. An incendiary bomb was only about eighteen inches long and about two inches in diameter. The front was blunt except for a pin protruding out at the front and rear and had fins so that it fell in a straight up position. As soon as it struck it burst into a vivid white phosphorous - looking intense flame which of course soon set alight any building it landed on.

This particular night the Germans had got it all wrong and dropped about twenty of these incendiary bombs all along the backs of our gardens in St. Georges Crescent. Immediately several of the men dashed out, some where rather pleased to, at least, be actively involved in the war. Most of them had been trained for a few hours in what to do in the event of an air raid. They were what was known as ARP Wardens (Air Raid Precaution, I think). My father was one of these and together with some of our neighbours quickly donned his tin hat and gas mask, ran out and picked up a red bucket of sand which was there for the purpose and started running towards the bombs. Unfortunately he wore quite strong spectacles without which he couldn't see a thing. These somehow got tangled up with the strap of his tin hat. This resulted in the dislodging of his spectacles and he finished up landing head over heels in the middle of his favourite rose bushes. This, of course, rendered him out of action for the rest of the incident. I can't remember the sequel to the incendiary bomb saga but can only assume that his friend put the fires out and that that was the end of the bombing in Walkden.

Recalling the incident reminds me that the Coalitin Government put out, from time to time posters which were pasted on public notice boards and walls. They were intended to give brief advice on how the war could affect us locally, some were intended to spur us into action to help the war effort and others helped to boost morale. The incendiary bomb incident reminds me of one which declared "If an incendiary bomb drops, don't loose your head, put it in a bucket and cover it with sand". Others implored us to help the war effort by growing out own food. "Dig for victory" was a very common slogan, others were imploring us not to accidentally give away any information which may be helpful to the enemy, the advice was: "Be like dad, keep mum". There were of course more posters and they helped to keep us going.

Incidentally my father was a county Alderman on Lancashire County Council Chairman of planning. He was an OBE for his services to education, Fellow of the Institute of electrical Engineers Associate of Salford Technical College now Salford University, but it didn't stop him from falling in the rose bushes

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