大象传媒

This is Part 1 of 5 of Mr. Imm鈥檚 War Memories submitted by Stafford Library on his behalf.

It was on Sunday morning 3 September 1939 that the news came over the wireless at 11am that War had been declared against Nazi Germany. In spite of all the hopes that war might be avoided the inevitable had happened. We just did not know what the future held for us. Our generation had grown up in the aftermath of the 1914-18 war and were very apprehensive and somewhat bewildered, we did not know what to expect. Our immediate fears were that the country would be subjected to widespread air raids by the German Luftwaffe. There were also fears that there would be a ruthless war against the civilian population with poison gas. Everyone nursed serious concern about the possibility of food shortages. Although I was employed as an engineering draughtsman which was under the heading of Reserved Occupation, I had to face up to the fact that as a young man it was more than likely that I might well be called up into the armed forces.

Hitler鈥檚 invasion of Poland had made it quite clear that he would not pull back from the brink of all-out war with Poland鈥檚 treaty partners and that included Britain. With the prospects for peace rapidly fading away there was to say the least of it an outbreak of panic buying of foodstuffs on Friday and Saturday 1 and 2 September. The shelves of grocery shops were stripped bare. Shopkeepers had a field day, old stock was cleared out in a flash. However, in no time at all after war had been declared the routines of war time shopping soon became the accepted way of life for the housewife when ration books had been issued to everyone. As well as ration books everyone in the country was issued with an Identity Card each with a personal number. My number was OSAV 312/1 and Mary鈥檚 was OSAV 312/2. Angela and Rosemary had their own cards, their numbers were in the series OLCC.

Like all young men I had to register for service with the armed forces. I was issued with Armed Services Certificate of Registration No. SQB1041. In the event, because I working in a reserved occupation, I was not called up. I transferred my employment from the BRC Design Office to the Machine Drawing office at English Electric in January 1940. Although men in reserved occupations could volunteer for the armed services they were only accepted for duties which required special skills. A number of young draughtsmen from English Electric volunteered and were accepted by the Royal Air Force for training as fighter or bomber pilots, navigators or air gunners. Sadly they all lost their lives. Being colour blind I would have been of very little use to any of the services, especially the RAF or the Navy. One of the odd effects of my colour blindness was revealed when BRC and English Electric applied camouflage paint to their works buildings. Although I was assured that the camouflage was effective from a distance, it did not make any difference at all to me, the buildings still looked just the same as before.

Most of the men who were working in reserved occupations and had not been called up into the armed services were members of one or other of the various Air Raid Precautions (ARP) organisations. I had joined the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) the day before war broke out. My time with the Fire Service has been written about in some detail in Chapter 6. There were only a few men in reserved occupations who did not voluntarily join any of the ARP units. As the war progressed they were conscripted and the Fire Service had their share of them.
By mid 1939 when it had become clear that war was a distinct possibility the population was urged to take measures to protect themselves and their homes in the event of air raids. Householders were encouraged to take action from a wide range of suggestions to minimise danger to property and the person. Leaflets were made available to illustrate how the hazards of bomb blast could be minimised. Ideas put forward included ways and means by which at least one downstairs room in a house could be strengthened as a shelter from bomb blast and falling debris in the event of an air raid. Soon after the war had started we prepared the front room downstairs at our home in Silkmore Lane as our strong room.

When war was declared in on 3 September 1939 everyone had already been issued with gas masks. There were five types, the standard civilian model was light, easy to carry and to use. For children there was another lightweight Mickey Mouse version. For babies a special gas mask for their protection was available, it was big enough to completely enclose the infant and was fitted with light hand operated bellows. It was quite a complicated gadget. Fortunately it never had to be put to the test. All service personnel and members of the ARP services were issued with what can best be described as a heavy duty mask, the filters of which were strapped around the chest of the wearer. Later on, a special additional filter was made available for some civilian masks. Blackout regulations came into force right from the start of the war. Windows in all buildings were required to be covered with material thick enough to ensure that no light showed through after dark. Motor vehicles and all road traffic were required to have their lights masked to ensure that the thin beam pointed downwards. Street lights were turned off for the duration of the war. A torch could only be used if it was masked and kept pointing towards the ground. The striking of matches and the use cigarette lighters outdoors was frowned upon. Air Raid Wardens were in their element if they saw a chink of light showing a window or if someone had the audacity to light a pipe or cigarette outdoors, they would shout, 鈥淧ut that light out鈥�.

By the end of 1939 the windows of our house in Silkmore Lane had all been stuck up with a diamond lattice of thick brown paper strips as a precaution against flying glass if there was bomb blast. Blackout frames with thick brown paper stuck over them were made to fit over all of the windows and curtains made of heavy material were an additional precaution. The window coverings helped tokeep draughts out during the winter months, however, the rooms became very stuffy. To get fresh air into the rooms we found that it was necessary to take the blackout down from the upstairs windows after we had gone to bed. We just had to remember not to switch on a light if we had to get up during the night.

Early in 1940 it was feared that an invasion of Britain was a real possibility. Plans were made to evacuate children from southern England and many of the big cities to areas of the country which were considered to be at less risk from enemy action. In May of 1940 households in Stafford were assessed regarding the amount of accommodation that each could provide for evacuees. At that time Mary and I had no children of our own and were living in a 3-bedroom house. We were told that we would be required to take in 3 evacuees. Late in 1940 at the height of the Battle of Britain and the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, Ramsgate and Ashford were right in the middle of the Germans鈥� target areas. As an important railway centre Ashford was extremely vulnerable and air raised caused considerable damage and loss of life in the area. The aerial dog fights which took place over Kent added to the perilous situation for the residents of Ashford.
To seek refuge from the air raids Mary鈥檚 parents closed their house in Ashford and moved up to Stafford to live with Mary and I. My mother had the key to No. 6 Sussex Avenue so that she could keep an eye on it. Fortunately it did not suffer any kind of damage from the bombing or from vandalism. In the middle of 1940, during the Dunkirk evacuation boys and girls from two schools in Ramsgate were brought up to Stafford. However by that time Mary鈥檚 parents were living with us, Angela had been born and we also had an evacuee of our own 鈥� Eileen Marsh from Ashford. She was a relation of Mary鈥檚 bridesmaid. We had agreed that if schoolchildren from Ashford were evacuated Eileen could come up to Stafford to be with us. When the evacuees from Ramsgate were being allocated to digs in Stafford were already full up. Eileen went to school at Rickerscote and stayed with us for about a couple of years. When the Battle of Britain was over and things had quietened down at Ashford for a while Eileen returned home. She was getting a little homesick and her mother who was a widow was feeling lonely without her.

Towards the end of 1940 when Mary was pregnant we considered that it would be prudent to move our bed into the safest room in the house and that was the downstairs front room which we had chosen to be our strong room. In the 1940s it was normal for babies to be born in their own homes. Mary鈥檚 baby was expected to be born during January 1941. The weather in January that year was atrocious. On Friday 17th a heavy snowstorm started. Over the weekend a howling easterly gale blew up and caused extensive drifting. Arrangements had been made with Mrs. Stacey, the local midwife who lived at the lower end of Silkmore Lane, to attend Mary at the birth of her baby. Mrs. Stacey visited Mary for a check up on the Saturday afternoon and said, 鈥榶ou will be all right over the weekend.鈥� In the early house of Sunday morning Mary had all of the symptoms that her time was very near. Angela had decided to be born at the height of a snowstorm. At about 4.30am on Sunday morning I went off on foot through deep snow dirfts to call Mrs. Stacey. Like most homes in the early 1940s we did not have a telephone in the home. To my surprise I found that Mrs. Stacey was not a home. Her husband said that she had gone away for the weekend. From the Stacey鈥檚 home I was able to telephone Dr. Wilson to advise him of the situation and to tell him that Mrs. Stacey was not available.

By the early hours of Sunday morning snow had drifted into a hillock some 15 to 20 feet high and at least 30 yards long in the road just below our house. Silkmore Lane was blocked by snowdrifts at both ends. Dr. Wilson contacted the duty district nurse and set out with her on foot from his home in Lichfield Road on the corner of Riverway, about 2陆 miles away. Soon after 6am an exhausted Dr. Wilson and the nurse arrived at No. 75. After examining Mary the doctor was, to say the least of it, very annoyed. He said that nothing would be happening for at least another 24 hours. To cut a long story short he went off and made arrangements for another midwife to call and take charge.

By Sunday afternoon 19 January the new midwife, who was quite a cool, calm and collected person, had weighed up the situation. At about 5.30pm she began the final preparations for the arrival of the baby. A few minutes before 6pm she called me into the room and said the baby will be here in a few minutes. She had everything well and truly under control. I was instructed to go and switch on the wireless and listen for the announcement of the 6pm news bulletin. During the War all the newsreaders introduced themselves by name before they read the news. The midwife said to me 鈥榠f it is a boy you must call him after the newsreader鈥�. On that evening it was Alvar Liddel who was on duty. At about 5 minutes past six I was called by the midwife and handed our baby daughter Angela, not Alvar. I was able to present the new member of the family to Mary鈥檚 mother and father.
Throughout the war meat, tea, sugar, butter, cheese, flour, bread, chocolates and sweets were all very tightly rationed. For most families it was necessary to plan for at least two meatless days per week. Mary had to be inventive with vegetables from the garden. One of her regular meatless dishes was vegetable pie. This was a mixture of all of the vegetables that were available at any one time. The crust was made up of a flour made from potatoes and topped up with a small portion of the family cheese ration, that is if there was any left. Bread became more and more off white as the war went on. In spite of all the difficulties associated with food rationing, the nation鈥檚 babies were well catered for with special allocations of appropriate foodstuffs such as milk products. There were free issues of cod liver oil and rose hip syrup. Luckily both of our war time babies took a liking to cod liver oil. The population as a whole, especially those living in the countryside, was urged to harvest the hips from wild roses and hand them in to collecting centres set up by Womens鈥� Institutes and other voluntary organisations. The families who were the hardest hit by food rationing were those with young teenagers. They found it particularly difficult to make the bread ration go round. The traditional English breakfast of egg and bacon was most certainly not available every morning. More often than not the bacon ration had to be used to supplement the meat ration for the main meal.

Off the ration food was keenly sought after. There was an occasional rabbit to be had, however most of them that did find their way into the butcher鈥檚 shops went under the counter from where they were channelled into the shopping bags of favoured customers. If one was lucky a rabbit might be won in a war time charity raffle. It is surprising what was on the prize list in these raffles. Once our milkman procured a rabbit for us. All that I had to do was to skin the poor thing. I read up just how the job should be done and got on quite well until the skin reached the head. According to the book it should be have been possible to get the skin off complete over the head. My first attempt at skinning a rabbit ended up with me chopping the head off the poor little thing.

At works鈥� canteens, restaurants and caf茅s one had to surrender at least some food ration coupons. However later on during the war there were limited opportunities to obtain quite good meals off the ration at British restaurants and works canteens. Most towns had a British restaurant to which centrally allocated rations were channelled by the Ministry of Food. These restaurants became very popular and continued to operate while food rationing was still in force for a year or so after the war had ended.

People who had generous relatives in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada or the USA were often lucky enough to have food parcels sent to them. My uncle and aunts in Canada were very kind to us. Throughout the war we had a least three bumper food parcels every year. No only did the parcels contain food, they were also ingeniously wrapped in a cotton fabric which was just the right size for the making of pillow slips or perhaps an item of children鈥檚 clothing. All kinds of luxuries were sent to us from Canada. There were tins of salmon, tins of ham, tins of fruit, sugar, butter, packets of cake mixture, tea, chocolates, lollipops and sweets for the children. Each item was carefully and individually wrapped, but not necessarily just to protect it during its hazardous journey across the Atlantic Ocean in a convoy dodging the German U boats. The wrappings were usable, with a bit of imagination, for converting into small items of domestic fabrics. Mary always looked for the hidden pairs of nylon stockings that might be tucked away in one of the packages. Fortunately none of the parcels sent to us from Canada were lost at sea by enemy action. When the cake mixture from the parcels was used we were surprised to see how light and fluffy and white they were. Cakes made from our own war time flour were a very dingy colour. We could not believe that before the war we had flour that was so white. I remember showing off at the office one day when I took a Canadian cake mix bun to eat at the morning tea break. Tea at one penny per cup was supplied at the office on the morning and afternoon tea round. There was no actual break in working time we just got on with our job while we supped our tea. When I produced my whiter than white bun it was soon spotted by my envious colleagues and I had a lot of explaining to do.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.