大象传媒

My story is about school days during World War Two. When you went off to school you always made sure you had your gas masks in your cases on your back and a tin mug tied at the side of it. The mug was for your daily free milk. Today鈥檚 milk does no taste anywhere near as good as that did.
When we arrived at school we had a register called. Then you all marched in line to the assembly hall where prayers were said and local news was discussed. Most days we had gas mask tests. The pupils all had to put on the masks and test to see if they worked when needed. You all put a sheet of paper on the nozzle and sucked the air in. The noise we made was funny. I think it was more of a fun game than a test.
At least once a week we had siren drill. That meant all in line, no talking and march to the air raid shelters situated under the play ground. To us kids it was one big adventure. We did not realise the seriousness of the event. We had to carry our gas masks with us at all times.
When at home and it started to get dark I would help my mum or dad to put up the black out blinds. They were put on the windows to prevent any light showing in the street. This was in case any enemy air craft was flying over head and any light would give them a guide as to where to drop their bombs. If there was a siren alarm, down to the air raid shelter we would go.
One day a German plan dropped on of his bombs at the bottom of the street we lived on. We kids just stood there watching. So much for our training. It turned out to be a big tragedy. Many people were killed that day including two of our playmates who were seriously injured.

I would not like to live through those days again.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Leah Giffard of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Una Ryan and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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