大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by a volunteer from Lincoln CSV Action Desk on behalf of Ray Evans and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Evans fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was attending Smethwick Hall Boys School, which is 3 miles outside of Birmingham, as a 12 year old when the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, broadcast that our country was at war with Germany.

I remember mom crying and sobbing a dad was comforting her and telling us, me and my younger brother Bert that we will be alright. I went to school the next day as usual and everyone was excited about what was going to happen. Eventually we all had exercise drill and shown how to proceed to the shelters if there were any air raids. In the meantime at home dad joined the ARP which was to protect the houses and roads nearby if anything happened. This was a voluntary unit and most of the men joined up.

Meanwhile the council had provided each home with an Anderson shelter. These shelters were sections of corrugated iron shapes bolted together and the idea was that each household dug a deep trench in their gardens and the shelter was dropped into place. I remember waiting for dad to come home from work so we could help him dig this enormous hole. We dug every evening and all weekends until our shelter was at regulation depth in the ground. An official from the council inspected every householder鈥檚 shelter and either passed it or told them to dig deeper. When ours was given the ok we could now begin to furnish it with stools, blankets, spare clothing and torches. I even remember painting our shelter black on the area which was visible above the ground. Some of our neighbours even placed divots of turf on theirs to blend in with the garden.

By now mom and dad had been issued with ration books for weekly food. Inside this book was a collection of coupons which the grocer or butcher took off each week for our family. If I remember right, I think it was something like 2oz butter, 录 cheese, 4 oz margarine and 6 eggs for a weeks supply. Sweets were rationed and so were cigarettes, which only affected dad.

Chocolate soon disappeared from the shops which were now beginning to look quite bare. Queues appeared at some shops like tobacconists who were selling Woodbines or 5 Players Weights to the men folk. There were some food items not rationed like brawn or offal and mo used to tell me to queue outside Wrenson鈥檚 shop on Saturday mornings for 1/4lb brawn. I was never near the front of the queue, so sometimes it was all sold out before my turn. I remember being told that we must not waste any food given to us and to help to try and behave properly because there was a war on. Mom told us that meat was a problem to everyone as the ration was very limited but she managed to mince the meat so that it went further. So I think that in the early war weeks everyone was aware of being a little bit hungry at times but it did improve as the country got used to rationing.

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