大象传媒

Here are some World War 2 memories gathered from members of our Craft Club:-

Marion Allbright: 鈥淲e lived in Corby which was, of course, famous for its steel works. The steel works had actually been built by the Germans during peacetime which means that they were an obvious target during wartime. Huge smokescreens were therefore created as a form of protection against enemy bombing. These consisted of large paraffin stoves, and I remember still the smell these produced, especially if the wind was blowing in our direction. There was also the danger of the stoves blowing over in a strong wind so they may have been effective but these stoves weren鈥檛 without their own dangers.

There were eight children in our family and our father was an air raid warden so the family was well-drilled to take cover as soon as the warning siren went off.

We also had air raid shelters at our school, and I remember we used to sing 鈥淭en Green Bottles鈥� as we waited in the shelter for the all-clear.鈥�

Lydia Gay (nee Deas) lived in London and recalled being evacuated to St Blazey, Cornwall. Her mother also travelled with her because she was recovering from an illness. 鈥淲e attended the village school where the boys were segregated. I remember we made brown paper bonnets to protect us from the bomb blasts, and if there was an air raid warning we had to put gas masks and the bonnets on, run up to church yard and hide in the bushes because this was considered to be the safest place. I was 7 years old at the time.

鈥淲e also had to gargle some purple liquid and spit it out on playground 鈥� potassium permanganate I think it must have been. I suppose it was a disinfectant or something but it didn鈥檛 seem very hygienic spitting it out!

鈥淲e used to enjoy walking along the beach until mines were placed in the beach.

鈥淭he school in the next village was bombed so we returned to London. Wherever we went it seemed that the air raids followed us. When we returned to London the V2 bombing began. A lot of school friends were buried in the bomb damage.鈥�

Merle Tshiamalenge (nee Johnson) recalls: 鈥淔uller Baptist Chapel, Kettering was used as a day centre for evacuated families. For various reasons some evacuees never went home, or they returned to Kettering after a short time, for example Frank Beale who managed the Henley Centre in Kettering, and the Crane family at Cottingham. Allah Buksh returned after a few weeks. He lived in Blackpool but his house had been badly damaged so he returned to Kettering, having gained a place at the local grammar school.

鈥溾�楳ake do and mend鈥� was very much the order of the day. Two items you could buy without coupons were coat canvas and webbing, so my mother used to boil and bleach the canvas and dye it different colours. She made pyjamas, pinafore slips and curtains from it and decorated them with ricrac braiding. With the webbing she made handbags and shopping bags, using a machine. The manager of the local Woolworth鈥檚 was so impressed that displayed one of handbags above the webbing to show what could be done.鈥�

Margaret Cooper: 鈥淎s children we used to lie in bed at night listening for the air raid sirens. We lived in Aston, close to the Aston Villa football ground and I remember one particular night when we heard the sirens and went down into the air raid shelter. When we thought the danger was over we went back into the house and it was then that we heard a bomb blast. It sounded very close and it had in fact hit part of the football ground. I never forgot it because it could so easily have hit our house. Aston suffered a lot of bombing and other local houses were hit on other occasions.鈥�

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