大象传媒

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Part 1

That year spring and summer went on much the same as ever, I was now twelve years old, and although the news was not very good, I didn't bother very much as things were going on around us. Children in London were being evacuated to the country and different offices were being set up in the towns.
Neville Chamberlain had been to Munich the year before and had come back telling us of peace in our time, so there was nothing to worry about.
The August holidays were ending, and we were getting ready to go back to school. September started pleasantly enough, the weather was good and everything seemed good to me, except perhaps the news, which I thought didn't concern me. Anyway, I had other things to think of, besides the news. Suddenly, all the adults were very worried, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister was to speak to the nation at 11 o'clock on Sunday morning, 3rd September. Everyone was feeling very apprehensive as they sat around their wireless sets, waiting to hear what he would have to say. Most people were frightened of what they were about to hear, remembering The Great War, just twenty years earlier, and all the bad things that happened then. Big Ben chimed 11 o'clock, and the Prime Minister started speaking, telling everyone that Adolph Hitler's armies had invaded Poland, therefore breaking the agreement they had made. There was no alternative, Britain had declared war on Germany.
The Germans had to be stopped, they had already overrun several other countries and they could not be allowed to go on as they were. We had to try and stop them.
My Mother burst into tears, everyone realising that this war could be worse than any other before it. I suddenly felt quite scared, having no idea what war would be like. I was twelve years old, and Mum suddenly realised that my eight year old sister had gone to the local recreation ground with her friends.
I was sent, at full speed to fetch her, wondering what would happen next. I saw Violet and her friends strolling along the road towards me, I called to them to hurry and we all started off towards home. All at once there was an ear-shattering sound, a very loud siren started wailing out, soon joined by another and then another. The noise seemed to be coming from everywhere all around us, it was a tremendous wailing up and down, up and down. It scared us out of our wits, we didn't know what was happening, people who had been standing by their gates, talking, told us to run home as fast as we could. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. Then it started up again, this time one long, long blast to tell us it was all clear.
Nothing had happened to us, the relief was so great as we reached home. After this first day of being at war, nothing was ever to be the same again. Soon we had officials knocking on the door, with gas masks packed in small square boxes, with a string attached to the box to enable us to carry them on our shoulders. We all had to try them on, and they smelled rubbery and were not particularly nice when they were on. We did discover that if you blew into them while you had them on, they made rude noises, our parents soon got tired of that game, and we were made to put them away. Small children were given masks that looked like Donald Duck, coloured red and blue. Babies had different ones altogether; most of their bodies fitted inside them, something like a small cradle, with the baby's head enclosed in the top half.
Unfortunately we had to take our gas masks with us wherever we went, they were mostly a nuisance, always getting in the way, but they were very necessary, in case we became exposed to poisonous gas, a possibility we all had to be aware o拢 Like most children, if we put them down, we forgot to pick them up again, forever having to retrace our steps until we found them.
At this time we were luckier than thousands of children, living just a few miles away, in the London area. They all had to be evacuated, some of them hundreds of miles away and most of them leaving their Mothers behind. Their Fathers had already been called up to go in the armed forces, (Army, Navy, Airforce etc.). These children had to go and live with strangers, but it was considered too dangerous for them to stay living in the London area.
Air raid shelters were delivered to every house or flat. Morrison shelters were the indoor ones, they were as big as a table, but like a reinforced box, or oblong crate and the top could be used as a table top. The bottom, if you weren't too big, you could sit up inside it, otherwise you had to lay down. Lots of people used them for sleeping in, they didn't look very comfortable, but were better than nothing at all. We had an Anderson Shelter, made out of corrugated iron sheets. The sides were curved at the top, so they formed an arch when bolted together. The back and front consisted of flat pieces also bolted together, the front part had a square hole for entry.
Dad dug a large hole at the top of the garden, away from the house. When deep enough, the shelter was fixed into the hole, any gaps were filled in. The spare earth was piled all over the top of the shelter, to disguise it from above, and plants were planted on the top, to make a perfect camouflage from planes.
Luckily, Dad was handy, and he made bunks to fit inside, along three sides. At the entrance, he built a porchway, with a piece of tarpaulin draped down the entrance, to help keep the cold out, and to allow a light to be lit inside without it showing from the outside. We had some old mats on the floor but it still felt very cold and damp, luckily it was a long time before we needed to use the shelter. We were soon issued with ration books and identity cards, everyone having to queue up at the Ministry of Food offices, to collect all the relevant documents for the family.
We all had an individual number on our identity cards, mine, I remember was CNYH 975. All the basic foods were rationed, except bread and milk.
Tea, sugar, butter, margarine, eggs, bacon were now all rationed, with a very small amount of everything; just one egg per person per week. The margarine was a blend of something or other, it was called "special margarine" and most people thought that it tasted discusting, but I rather liked it myself.
Meat was also rationed, if there was only one or two in the family, you would only have enough meat for one meal a week. If there were several people, you fared slightly better; sausages, offal and fish were not rationed, neither were vegetables, so you might have a meal one or two days a week consisting of mainly vegetables. Where there was a large family, things could be spread around somewhat. What one person didn't like, another person did, and if a family didn't use up all their rations, they never left them at the shop, they always bought things and resold them to someone who didn't have many rations. Items were sold at cost price, but there were always a few people out to make a profit and there were lots of people who bought things on the black market. There would always be something around for those with money to spare.
Shops were stocked with only small amounts, and there were always queues, wherever you went. If anyone saw a shop taking delivery, the word would go around and soon there would be a queue.

We no longer had street lights to show us the way at night, everywhere was blacked out. If your windows weren't blacked out, you could not have a light on. All places of work, schools, offices, factories and shops could not let even a chink of light show from the outside at all.
My Dad made wooden frames to fit our downstairs windows and covered them with thick black paper. These frames had to be put up each night, fitting them into the window frames and then taking them down each morning.
Upstairs we had thick black curtains over the top of our normal curtains, which were easily pulled together.
Imagine in the hot weather, if you wanted a window or a door open, you could not have a light on at the same time. In order to have a little air coming in, you switched off the light, and we all needed a torch at hand, especially if it was foggy. Such fogs are seldom seen nowadays, we called them "Pea-soupers" and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face in daylight and it became ten times worse once it got dark.
If you were out when a "pea-souper" came down, you could be walking along, imagining you knew where you were, and you'd start falling off kerbs and walking into hedges face first!
One day, I thought I was walking down an alley way, when I fell down a kerb; I had lost all sense of direction and had absolutely no idea where I was. Luckily someone came along with a torch and put me back on track. It was quite scary in the pitch black with no idea where you might be.
There weren't many cars around in those days, and those that were had their headlights covered with just a slit in the middle exposed, to show the way. The buses were the same, and in these fogs, people would walk along in front of the buses, shining their torches, going at a snail's pace; until the driver would decide that he'd had enough and refuse to go any further. This would leave many people stranded as well as himself, and they would now have to try and find their way home. The driver would have to find out where he had left the bus, so that he could let the garage know.
No church bells were to ring, they were to stay silent for the duration of the war. This was unless the enemy tried to invade us, when they would peal out to warn us that the enemy had landed on our shores.
Everyone dug most of their gardens up, in order to grow vegetables. Practically everyone with a lawn dug it up, maybe leaving just a small patch of grass.
The Government decided that our farmers needed more light in the evenings, so that they could work for longer hours, so at the end of March, instead of putting the clocks forward by one hour, they were put forward two hours. This enabled people to work outdoors until 10 o'clock at night, sometimes later if the weather was good.

Meanwhile, there were no signs of war going on around us, except that families
were being broken up each day; fathers, husbands, brothers and sons were being called up to go to war. Not all men went into the forces, some went on important war work, others were sent to work down the coal mines as the country needed more coal. Girls were called up to go into the Land Army to help the farmers and market gardeners. They were also put into factories to do war work, or the A.T.S. Women's Army, or the W.A.A.F.(Women's Auxillary Airforce) or the W.R.N.S.(Women's Royal Naval Service).
There was so much going on, all the factories changing from their normal manufacturing, to war work of all kinds. Making planes, tanks, ammunitions; shells, bombs, torpedoes and all manner of things that were needed to help our country to win the war.
Ladies and young girls were now called upon to do jobs that only men had been allowed to do before. Nothing was too hard or too much for the ladies, and everyone just got on with whatever task that was put before them, without any complaint.
Meanwhile, over on the Continent, our men were fighting the enemy, they were not doing very well, as our country had not been prepared for a full scale war. We were short of planes, guns and tanks and every other kind of weapon. They were up against forces more powerful than themselves.

At home the L.D.V. was being set up.( Local Defence Volunteers). Men and boys flocked to join; young boys of about sixteen to men of over seventy, all willing to try and defend the country, in the event of an invasion, even though they didn't have much to defend it with. Someone decided to change the name from L.D.V. to The Home Guard (now popularly known as "Dad's Army").
Other men and women joined the Civil Defence, commonly known as the A.R.P.(Air Raid Precautions), and they had little offices all over the country, such as a small room in a school, a garage or even someone's house, anywhere where they could be fitted in.
Air raid shelters were being built everywhere, some were brick built and strongly reinforced, others were underground; large rooms built underground to accommodate lots of people. Small sacks, filled with sand were stacked around lots of buildings, like another wall. Brown sticky tape appeared on everyone's windows, in a criss-cross pattern, like butterflies. This helped to prevent the glass shattering with the blast from shells and bombs.
The Air Raid Wardens patrolled the streets every night, checking that everything was alright, and woe betide anyone with a chink of light showing; the wardens would bang on their doors or windows and shout very loudly "Put that light out!" and anyone who didn't obey was in trouble and the wardens banged and shouted until the lights were put out. Sometimes they called the Police if they got no response, and the person would be taken to Court. I must add that cases such as this were very rare and apart from the occasional incident, life went on much as normal. We went to school and did all the things that normal children do.

Continued in part 2

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