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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from Oxford ´óÏó´«Ã½/CSV on behalf of Joyce Dee and has been added to this site with her permission. Joyce Dee fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

PEOPLE IN STORY: Joyce Dee, nee Blackledge, a child in the war
LOCATION OF STORY: Lancashire
MAIN AREA OF INTEREST: Childhood
TITLE: THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD

Joyce, one of three children, remembers her father going off to war from their home in Lancashire, at the top of the street he waved goodbye to them. He drove an ammunition wagon, attached to the RAF, and followed the Allied advance in Egypt. Joyce remembers receiving his letters from Egypt. Her uncle was also in the services and was taken prisoner in Crete.

Joyce then moved to her grandma’s near Accrington so that her mother could work in the mills, weaving the cloth for uniforms. Her mother, who sewed beautifully, would comb jumble sales for second hand clothes. She particularly looked for fur-collared coats so she could cut the fur into mittens for the children.

Sometimes they would go and stay with Aunt Lily in Manchester for a ‘holiday’. They were there in August 1943 when Manchester was bombed. At night they would have to go into the Anderson shelter in the garden when the bombing started. Joyce, aged about 8, remembers coming out of the shelter one morning to discover that the whole street opposite their shelter had disappeared, it had received several direct hits. A nearby cinema was also bombed and everyone inside was killed.

There was another occasion coming out of the shelter that Joyce remembers particularly well. The warden would come round to tell them it was all clear, but on this occasion he told the aunt to send the children out first, and to be quiet. Aunt Lily asked what all the fuss was about and then they noticed a big black thing with spikes hanging from the nearby apple tree — a mine which had missed a direct hit on the shelter by mere inches! After that Joyce was sent home and even now is very aware of the arbitrary nature of survival, especially during a war.

Joyce also remembers the Italian POWs there were around, living at Ozwelthwistle and marching up the street in pairs. Every Sunday she would go and watch them play football. The Americans were also there and gave the children chewing gum.

Food was in short supply and everyone had to queue for everything. Joyce particularly remembers queuing for a 1lb of Bramley apples. In Manchester the main meal was fish and chips. Joyce would ask for custard creams as a treat. Five Woodbines in a paper packet could be bought ‘under the counter’. At the end of the war the children were given an orange at school — what’s this they wondered.

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