大象传媒

Staffordshire County Council libraries, on behalf of the author, have submitted this story. The author fully understands the rules and regulations of the People's War website.

Looking back over sixty years or more many memories come to mind. Some are as vivid as if they happened yesterday whereas others are sketchy and vague. The passage of time has made it impossible to put them in chronological order or to remember the names of the people involved.

I was a young child at the time living in a Council house in Bilston, Staffordshire. It was an industrial area with a steel works and heavy engineering prominent both in Bilston and in the surrounding towns of Willenhall, Wednesbury, Darlaston, and Wolverhampton. For me life revolved around school, playing with friends in the street and listening to the wireless which at that time was still something of a novelty.

I first became aware that life was about to change when my parents started talking about "the crisis". I didn't know what this meant but realised that it must be important. They also talked about the possibility of war. Mother told me that Mr. Anthony Eden (Later Lord Avon and Foreign Secretary at the time) had resigned and made it clear that she supported this action and admired him for doing so. This didn't mean much to me but on the radio there was a lot of talk about Czechoslovakia, Mr. Chamberlain, Lord Halifax and Herr. Hitler (People were invariably given their titles in those days). There was talk of an impending war and when Neville Chamberlain made the announcement on September 3rd, 1939 this came as no surprise to me.

As a child I had seen many pictures of warlike scenes, tanks in action, battleships and scenes of aerial combat and so I greeted the outbreak of war with a sense of excitement. At my age of course, I had no idea of the suffering or of the horrors to come.

With the outbreak of war came the announcement that Winston Churchill had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. My mother expressed satisfaction at this as she had great confidence in Churchill. Her instinct, as in so many things, proved correct and of course Churchill became Prime Minister a few months later and achieved immortality as our wartime leader.

My parents, in common with most other people, had to cope with the blackout and listened continually to the radio for news. This brought little comfort and within a day or so of the outbreak we learned that the passenger liner "Athenia" had been sunk by a German submarine. The tragic sinking of this ship caused anger and revulsion although later it transpired that the U-boat commander had mistaken the "Athenia" for an armed merchant cruiser and therefore a legitimate target. More bad news was to follow a few weeks later. On my way to school I saw a placard outside a local newsagent's shop with the headline "Royal Oak Sunk". A German submarine had penetrated the defences at Scapa Flow and sunk the British battleship with great loss of life. The Royal Navy had been caught unprepared and the sinking was a great blow to British morale.

We were warned continually of the likelihood of air raids and possible gas attacks and so the construction of public air raid shelters continued and the whole population was issued with gas masks. These were uncomfortable to wear but we had to practice using them and we were obliged to carry them with us always when we went to school.

My father, who worked for the local Council and had volunteered for duty as an Air Raid Warden, somehow found time to construct an air raid shelter for us in the back garden. He dug a trench then built a structure over it of wood and steel and covered the whole with a thick layer of turf. It was big enough to hold all five of our family and would have provided a degree of protection although it must be admitted that it was cramped and rather damp. Later however we were provided with an "Anderson" shelter by the local authority. This was larger and constructed of heavy gauge corrugated steel and became our refuge when the air raids eventually began. Of course I told my school friends about this and one of them, not to be outdone, took me to his home and proudly showed me his "Morrison" shelter. This consisted of a large steel table with wire mesh sides and was situated in the lounge. It was designed to protect the occupants if the house suffered bomb damage. It occurred to me in later years that it could have become a fire trap.

Inevitably of course, our education at school was interrupted and I recall that attendance was restricted to half days only for several weeks. This was probably because air raid shelters needed to be constructed. When we returned to school we were shepherded into the shelters by the teachers when the air raid sirens sounded. This occurred fairly regularly although I can not recall any air raids during daytime. There were numerous false alarms possibly due to the misidentification of approaching aircraft.

The trips to the air raid shelter proved a welcome diversion from the rigours of the classroom and we were kept amused by the antics of some evacuee children from the London area who had been transferred temporarily to our school. These were referred to as the "vaccies" and their cockney accents contrasted sharply with our own. One of the boys used to amuse us by pulling his fringe over one eye and wearing a black moustache made out of insulating tape. With much raising of his right arm and shouts of "Zieg Heil" he gave a passable imitation of Hitler which provoked roars of laughter even among the teachers.

The air aids began in 1940. These were almost always at night and as soon as the sirens sounded we would make our way to the air raid shelters. As well as our own family my father used to collect one or two of the neighbour's children. They shared our shelter probably because their own was overcrowded.

Although we couldn't see them we soon learned to recognise the German bombers by the noise of their engines. The twin-engined Heinkels and Dorniers produced a distinctive sound easily distinguishable from that of our single-engined fighters. I well remember my mother's oft repeated words "Jack! They're over" when the enemy bombers approached.

Sometimes the raids were not in our immediate locality and we could see the night sky lit up by the fires started by enemy bombing. On one occasion the anti-aircraft gunners were firing tracer bullets. From a distance these appeared as a stream of stars moving upwards into the night sky.

We were situated in an extensive industrial area and an obvious target for the German planes. When the raids came closer to home however the sky would be lit up by searchlights and sometimes the bombers would drop flares to illuminate the area. There was a lot of noise from anti-aircraft guns and one, which was situated nearby, was particularly loud. It was rapid firing and the repeated firing of five rounds in succession was deafening.

One evening I remember clearly seeing a German bomber caught in the glare of the searchlights. It must have been a frightening experience for the crew. They were dazzled by the searchlight's glare, being shot at by every gun within range and with the prospect of being pounced upon at any moment by an eight-gun Hurricane or Spitfire. I have often wondered whether that particular crew made it back to base and whether they survived the war. There were thousands on both sides who did not.

The raids continued for some months and a number of people in our area were killed. Our own family had a narrow escape when an incendiary bomb just missed our house and landed a few feet away in the neighbour's front garden. If such a thing happened today I would certainly be scared but on that occasion, strangely I was not, merely remarking to my mother "They've got one!" before accompanying her to the shelter. My father, still wearing his carpet slippers, acted quickly and dashed out carrying a bucket of sand to help our neighbour extinguish the flames. In the morning we discovered superficial damage to the garden and fence but nothing more and contented ourselves by collecting pieces of shrapnel. I still have one or two pieces in my possession which I kept as souvenirs.

Looking back over the years many other memories come to mind. The inspiring speeches of Winston Churchill which maintained the morale of the British people. The voice of Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) and his propaganda broadcasts from Germany. Rationing and food shortages, utility furniture, barrage balloons and a group of Italian prisoners whom I met while on a summer camp. They were a decent enough crowd, caught up in a war they didn't want. Most vivid of all though were the horrific scenes when the death camps were liberated. Humanity paid a terrible price in the defeat of Nazi Germany and the suffering and sacrifice of millions of lives must never be forgotten.

As the new century unfolds there is now a greater global awareness of the need to combat abuses of human rights. Let us hope that this and the closer union between the countries of Europe will ensure that future generations will not have to relearn the lessons of the past.

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