大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Odilia Roberts from the Derby Action Team on behalf of Keith John Davies and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

During the years 1939 to 1945 my mother Gladys, father Jack, sister Sheila and myself Keith lived in a terraced house in Taylor Street, Wilmorton, Derby.

All the windows in the house had to be blacked out at night to prevent enemy aircraft spotting any light to give them an easy target to aim at. There was also some smoke making machines along the main roads that were lit at night to form a smoke screen for the same purpose, they used to smell awful.

We did not have an air raid shelter; we went down into the cellar of our house when the sirens went. For our safety the ceiling was covered in corrugated sheets supported with iron pillars these were meant to keep you safe should a bomb drop on close proximity to you. The side walls had trap doors inserted so that you could make your way all along the row of houses should it be necessary to get out, if your house was hit.

My mother used to leave piles of our clothes at the top of the stairs for us to pick up and take with us when the sirens went, so that we at least had some clothes to wear if any damage did occur and we had to make our way into the street.

We slept on camp beds, some nights when the bombing was at its height we would sleep down there instead of going to bed. My father Jack always stayed in bed at night saying 鈥淣o German bombers were going to keep him out of his bed鈥�, till one night a bomb dropped a few streets away, in Rugby Street, the blast caused the windows to be blown in and the glass mirror on his dressing table to smash and cover him in glass while he lay in bed. This certainly woke him up and he jumped out of bed, came running down the stairs, across the living room then down the cellar steps into the cellar and sat panting on the camp bed. My mother, with a smile on her face said 鈥淪o much for the Germans not getting you out of bed, Eh!鈥� We had never seen my father move so fast before in his life, he certainly thought twice about staying in bed after that.

Life in the cellar in that terraced house was good fun for us not realising the dangers of the war, but feeling perfectly safe down there no matter what happened above ground.

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