大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War website by Hayley Coates and Leah Roberts of Wigan Over Fifties Forum on behalf of Mabel Kelly and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

"The war started when I was 8 years old. At the time I was at St Andrews Primary School but you only went for part of the day. Every week the rota changed. Sometimes you went in the morning and others you went in the afternoon. Every school had their own air raid shelter. The shelters had very strong, steel doors. There were a few steps going down into it as the shelters were underground. Everyone had to take their own gas masks in with them just in case an air raid went off. Every day at school there was training sessions so everybody knew what to do. There was only one bomb which went off near to me, and that was when it went off in Scholes during the night. The raid started and everyone rushed as quickly as possible to get in the shelters. I was supposed to be going to America to live with my aunties with my brothers. I found it really hard during the war because of the rationing! You couldn't just eat whatever you wanted when you wanted, you had to make everything last. You had a pound of sweets to last you around a month. If you wanted fruit, you had to grow it yourself, but you would have been lucky if it lasted.
My mother was the controller of the air raid wardens. You only saw the Pathe News which told you what was happening in the rest of the world. You heard stories off the neighbours about what they thought but you never knew is they were true. Most evacuees were kept in the church halls and no holidays were allowed. During the day, you could have gone and played in the school grounds as the gates had been pulled down for the making of bombs and other things to help in the war. You couldn't go out during the night just in case you got lost or something. You had to make rugs and other things to help in the case of a raid. Italian prisoners of war were brought into Wigan in a POW Camp. My brother was sent to Germany, and when he got over there he sent me a pair of stockings! (one thing you couldn't get over here) My brother was very friendly with the prisoners and took messages to their families for them. There were very cold winters over here. Much colder than the ones we have now. My other brother was only one year old when the war started so he didn鈥檛 really know what was happening.
During the raids, the noises were horrible, especially the air raid sirens. You could also hear the bombs going off in Liverpool and around you. It was horrible. If sirens went off at night, you had to jump up and leave. You couldn't go back and get valuables. It鈥檚 just like if you have a house fire.
You only saw bananas and other fruits after the war. Younger people had never seen them before, also with the other types of foods.
I was at school fro VE Day. There were street parties everywhere and the end of the war. Our next door neighbour married a GI who used to bring tins of food over here. You used to be able to get chewing gum off certain people. Rationing didn't end straight at the end of the war. Food was taken off rationing one by one so it lasted quite a long time after the war. All the lads had to go away at the aged of around 17 or 18.
I started work in a leather factory which had been used for an Italian Prisoners of war in 1945. We used to have many army dances at the 鈥淓mpress鈥� in Wigan. Lots of young women married very quickly after the war. Lots of children didn't know their parents as they were soldiers taken as prisoners of war. One of my neighbour鈥檚 sons was a prisoner kept in Japan and he was only allowed one bowl of rice a day. In August, everybody was celebrating the victory over Japan. My next-door neighbour married a GI and went to live with him in America,like many of the people did!"

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