大象传媒

I was twelve years old when the war broke out, we had anticipated it for a long time. I can remember the day quite clearly. I had four brothers and sisters, and we all sat round the wireless and listened to the Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain tell the nation that we were now at war with Germany.

Britain wasn't really prepared for war, and we were all very frightened. Our imaginations ran wild as stories of how Hitler and the Nazis were behaving in the countries they had occupied in Europe.

So began our preparations for war. At home we had to buy blackout curtains for the windows and we were given ration books for our essential food such as: meat, eggs, bacon, butter, tea and eggs.

Then we were given gas masks which had to fit and work properly. It was organised like an election campaign. It was done in alphabetical order and each family had to go to a school or hall to be fitted with a gas mask. There were three types of gas masks. One for adults and school children, one for toddlers - it was like a Micky Mouse mask - and one for babies - it was like a plastic casing you put the baby in.

After we were all fitted with our gas masks we had to go to a Gas Mask Testing Station for testing. That was awful! I was put with about twelve other people in a shed. We all had our gas masks on and then Tear Gas was pumped into the shed. Afterwards we all felt more secure because we expected Hitler to drop Gas Bombs on us. Just like he did in the first World War (and that was dreadful).

All through the war people were constantly tested to make sure they didn't forget their gas masks. For example, a van would be outside a factory or school and as people and children came out the people in the van would throw Tear Gas Bombs at us. My sister Doreen was once caught out without her gas mask on. Her eyes were swollen for days!

Our lives changed considerably once the war got on its' way. Although in the North of England, we never experienced the bombing like the Londoners. I think we suffered just as much in otherways.

There wasn't as much food in the North of England. Essential foods went on the Black Market, and if you couldn't afford them you did without.

My father served in the First World War as a Bandsman; and then as a Stretcher Bearer in France and Belgium. So we didn't expect him to go off in this war. But he did. In 1941 he enlisted in the Airforce, much to the regret of us all. As my mother was left with five children to look after and the allowance for Servicemen was very small in that period.

My eldest sister, Doreen, was working in a factory making tins and I went to work at Carr's Biscuit Factory. It was a very large factory which supplied most of England with biscuits of all varieties: creams, chocolates all kinds of fancies. But this all stopped during World War Two. The factory started making Iron Rations for the Services. Iron Rations were a very hard biscuit, like a dog biscuit, and they were full of vitamins and could keep fresh under all conditons. I used to solder tins for Lifeboats.

As the war progressed, lots of things were happening. Refugee children from Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia arriving in our city of Carlisle. The children were to be fostered out - poor little things! I can remember them still today - they all looked skinny and lost. Later when the bombing of the big cities in England started, the children from Newcastle were evacuated to Cumberland. We had a week off school while the children were billeted at various homes.

At home our lives were becoming more and more difficult. My mother had to go to work. Food was scarce, clothes were on coupons.We couldn't afford to buy things as our earnings went into keeping the home. I never wore stockings all during that period, and most of our clothes came from Second Hand Shops.

Our mother found it very hard to have to go to work and look after a large family and cope with all the deprivations of war. Planning meals must have been dreadful for her. Some days all we had to eat was powdered potatoes with powdered tomato soup for our one and only meal of the day! There were no luxuries like sweets, chocolate or cakes; and we forgot what fruit tasted like!

Our home, which had always been nice, warm and well maintained; became shabby, unhappy and cold. Nothing could be replaced, our bedding became as thin as paper and we were never warm in winter. The towels were in rags, and as for carpets - we forgot about them!

WAR DESTR0YS FAMILY LIFE. But we, like many others, had a lot to be thankful for. We all survived - some for better, some for worse!

I was a teenager working in a bar when the war ended. For weeks there was singing and dancing round the Town Hall. People were smiling and singing again.

Then the demobilizing of the Forces started and soldiers, sailors and airforce boys coming home from active service and from Prisoner of War Camps. I met a lot of them, working in a bar. Some had limbs missing. Some I met had been prisoners in Burma on the infamous Railway of Death. Some came home to find no wives waiting for them; babies not belonging to them - such is the aftermath of War!

The dreadful news was filtering in about camps being discovered in Germany and Poland; and Jews having been murdered in their thousands. I think we all thanked God, because at times, Britain was so near to losing the war.

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