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"im a pupil from Heaton manor school, Newcastle upon tyne entering Ron French's story onto the website and they fully understand the website terms and conditions of use".
Ron French
I was born in north-west London and was 4 years old when the war broke out and 10 when it ended. My first memory was living 2 miles away from a fighter base. I lived in a house with my mam and dad and 3 brothers and sisters, so altogether there were 6 of us. My youngest brother was 5 months old when the war broke out and slept through a whole air raid whilst on top of a Morrison shelter. I spent lots of time in the Morrison and Andersen shelters and in the early days of the war the cupboard! My family took all rations and drinks into the shelters. This was because when there was an air raid they would last us for most of the day . While in the shelter there was lots of bombing activity outside. I can remember certain bombs very well firstly the V1 you could hear these coming they had a clattering engine once you heard it stop clattering it would drop. V2 very different to the v1 but not as loud as you couldn鈥檛 hear these coming they were also extremely fast and finally the landline bomb there were no warnings for this bomb and it came down on a parachute this meant there were lots of landmines around and it was very dangerous. My father during the war developed airplane parts he was also employed as an air raid warden this meant he had to watch out for bombs and signal to everyone to enter there shelters. The shelters that my father sent people to weren鈥檛 very good, Herbert morrison developed the morrison shelter which were inside the house however Andersen shelters were set in concrete outside and wouldn鈥檛 survive a direct hit from any bomb.
I was never evacuated during the war and mostly stayed out of sight only on rare occasions was I allowed out and when I did leave the house it was to collect food or to go with my friends and watch dogfights in the sky between English and German planes, I found this quite exciting. People got used to spending time in doors or in the garden, where you seen sonic bombs shoot past, every one waited for the engine to stop then you would run to the shelters. I was 4 years old so I found it quite exciting to me.
On the first day of war being declared no one was around and the wardens walked around blowing whistles warning people that the country was at war and it was not safe around the streets. There were no TV鈥檚 around when I was a child so we found everything out via radio but everyone knew who Hitler was and when Winston Churchill made a speech on the radio everyone in the family used to crowd around the radio.
Although my father was not involved in army duties my uncle was in the navy his ship was once sunk and the Japanese captured him he was sent to a Prisoner of war camp where from a weight of 13 stone he left at 6 stone and never recovered.
Near the end of the war an air raid caused my father a serious leg injury and one day after the cinema my mother and father got caught up in a bomb hit nearby which caused his leg injury he had to stop running but my mother carried on and said 鈥測our on your own鈥�.
After the war we threw huge street parties even though we were still under rationing everyone got their fair share of food the effect of the war never really left us and we were still under rationing for several more years.

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