大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Alison Tebbutt of the Derby Action Desk on behalf of Mrs Joan Warren, and has been added to this site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I will always remember the very first night of the Second World War. It was September 3rd 1939 and Neville Chamberline had announced the grim news that we were now at war with Germany. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was fourteen years old. Seeing the despair on my parents faces, I went out into the garden and cried.
We were all in bed that night but about midnight we were woken by the awful wailing of the air raid siren. I still hate the sound of it now, when I hear it in a film or somewhere.
We all jumped out of bed in panic. I remember we had to fumble about in the dark to get dressed as I think our black out curtains were not in place in the bedrooms. As our air raid shelter was not ready, I think there must have been a pre-arranged plan with the neighbours to evacuate to the nearby Sinfin golf course, which was evidently considered a safe place to be in an air-raid.
My seven year old sister gathered all her little treasures together to take with us in case the house was bombed but eventually, complete with gas masks, and our little dog Rex, we got away to join dozens of people trailing down the path past the school which led to the golf course. We had to climb over a fire barred gate but everyone seemed to manage it, we were so anxious to get to safety.
It was a bright moonlit night as we trailed across the course, (which later came to be called a bombers moon.) Someone in our group suggested we lie down beside the bukkers for greater protection, then someone else raised the question of how wwe would know if gas bombs were dropped as it was thought we were too far away to hear the special gas warning (the air raid wardens were going to shake football rattles.) However, Mrs Morton, who owned the local grocery shop told us not to worry, as her husband Sid would soon smell if there was gas about. 'He's got ever such a good nose.' she said reassuringly. The humour of this remark escaped us at the time, but we realised later that by the time Sid had smelt the gas, it would probably have been too late for all of us.
However, there was no sign of enemy bombers that night and the welcome sound of the 'all clear' a few hours later sent us trekking wearily back home.
No bombs were dropped on our housing estate during the war but one night when the German planes were probably trying to find Rolls-Royce, a few bombs landed on outskirts of the golf course!!!

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