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There was a huge AKAK gun nearby, we called ‘Big Bertha’. When you come to think of it, it had no hope of actually hitting aeroplanes anyway. The search lights would shine across the sky when the air raid siren was on. There were loads of barrage balloons to keep the planes from flying low. We could tell the German bombers coming over as they made a different sound to our planes.

We had food rationing and clothing coupons — that went on for years and years and we were encouraged to ‘make do and mend’. The Park railings were taken down and ordinary domestic railings were commandeered for armaments.

I was in the ARP (Air Raid Precaution) — I was called up, but excused from the forces as I’d been ill. Two nights a week I was on ARP duty from 5 till 10 p.m. In the blackouts you were allowed a small torch, as all the lights were out. The buses were pretty near to where I lived. The cars were only allowed to use their small side-lights.

Quite near to our house was a hospital (Whitchurch Military Hospital). A friend of Mother’s used to collect some ‘wounded’ soldiers each Sunday and bring them to our house for tea.

We met some of them, they were nice people. But some only had an injured finger, or a small injury from playing football or something. They were all dressed in blue — special uniforms. Two of them had been stationed in Iceland. They were pretty glad to come back home to England. There was a man called Kim — an artist — he’d hurt his leg. He was was engaged to a WAF. I remember they both came round one afternoon, but she stayed the night in my bed — I had to sleep in the sitting room on the sofa.

Our brother was in the army for the duration of the war. He was in India for 3 years.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sarah Evans of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of May McEwan and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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