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I was 6 years old when the war started and I can well remember all the talk about how to blackout the house so that German aeroplanes could not use the ground lights for navigation. This was especially important because we lived in Urmston, a suburb of Manchester and close to the heavy industrialised Trafford Park, a prime target for enemy bombers. We youngsters used to collect shrapnel following a heavy raid and also spend time watching activities at the barrage balloon base close to our house. The nearest to us that a bomb fell was in a back garden about 50 yards away, but the loudest bang came from a landmine which landed in the nearby meadows and made a huge crater; we were lucky it did not land on the adjacent houses.

My father built an underground shelter in our garden, but as far as I can remember it was only used about half a dozen times before it filled with water! I can remember one night the family all tramping down to the shelter and my grandmother having an India rubber between her teeth to stop her biting her tongue if startled by a loud bang! We abandoned the outdoor shelter in favour of a metal Morrison shelter situated in the back room, which had wooden shutters on the windows. Many people put strips of brown sticky tape on their windows to stop flying glass if a bomb blast broke the glass.

Father was in a reserved occupation (industrial chemist). He worked hard not only at work but also as a firewatcher at night, and on the allotment at weekends growing our own vegetables. The firewatchers took it in turns to be on duty and an axe, bucket and stirrup pump changed hands daily. My father put a large map of the world on the kitchen wall so that he could mark events as they unfolded especially the German advance towards Moscow. My mother was always cheerful and managed to produce appetising meals from meagre rations. She made sure I did not worry, and when asked what we would do if the Germans came, replied ‘don’t worry we will all be in the same boat’!

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