大象传媒

We were both 12 years old and lived in Leicester when war was declared by Neville Chamberlain and we both well remember sitting with our respective families, round our wirelesses (no radios in those days) at 11.15am, on the 3rd September, listening to him say 鈥溾��.as a consequence, we are at war with Germany.鈥�

We didn鈥檛 know what to expect. Our parents rushed around making 鈥楤lack-out鈥� curtains and we waited for the bombing to start. We were a bit put out when nothing really happened for weeks. Then of course it did!!

Leicester was never bombed to the extent that places like Coventry and Hull were. Never the less, we received our share of the Bosch鈥檚 attention.

From the age of 13 I used to cycle some 5 鈥� 6 miles across Leicester to school and one of these journeys became quite memorable. Leicester had had a particularly bad night of bombing, especially as I found out on my journey in the High-Fields and 鈥榮pinney Hill areas through which I had to cycle. I kept coming across roads that were blocked with still smoking rubble and had to try another way, only to find that way blocked as well. I was getting more and more worried because we were always told off and given extra homework for being late. Eventually I got to school about 10.15 instead of 9.00am and I walked into the classroom. There were no boys; just three men teachers talking. I started to make my excuses for being late, but they stopped me by asking how on earth I had got there, all the way from Braunstone. I explained about the journey and the rotters sent me straight home again. I was not amused!!

During a daylight raid, Marion, whose mother was at work, ushered her siblings into the Anderson shelter in their garden and then carried on putting the washing on the line, only to received a right old telling-off from her mother who had rushed home from her work at the Leicester Royal Infirmary to ensure they were all right.

I helped my dad to dig out for and erect the Anderson Shelter we were given and we made it very nice and comfortable with candles for light, etc. However, the first time it rained, the shelter half filled with water so we never did use it. Instead we used a public shelter on school property just round the corner from where we lived. This was the unhealthiest environment I think I have ever been I, with people of all ages, crowded together, coughing and sneezing and we got very little sleep but we had some great sing-songs and an awful lot of laughs.

Eventually, at the age of 14, I was old enough to become and ARP (Air Raid Precautions) messenger, ready to ride my bike with messages between ARP posts if the telephone failed. During the winter of 1941/2, night after night, we would go to bed early to get some sleep; be woken up by the air raid sirens and spend hours on duty, then get back to sleep if we could, before going off to do a normal day鈥檚 work. One night the sirens sounded, I got up, got dressed, got my bike out of the hallway and my dad, who was an ARP Warden opened the door for us to go out which woke me up!! I had done it all in my sleep, I was so tired. Clearly I was no use on duty and my dad sent me back to bed. By this time we had stopped using the shelters, preferring to 鈥榯ake our chances鈥�.

I also very clearly remember one night, standing on the hill outside the Roxy cinema watching the terrifying 鈥榝irework display鈥� which, we realised, was Coventry being bombed. The sky was aglow with the light from the fires and explosions, and Coventry was 25 miles away!!

We both started work at the age of 14 and I started as a trainee motor mechanic in a Ford dealership in April 1941, 10 days after my 14th birthday. Later that year, we were taken over by the MOD to overhaul Bren-gun carriers which were powered by Ford V8 engines. Marion鈥檚 mother was assigned to work there (all women had to do war work) and in 1942 got her daughter a job there too which is how we met.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.