大象传媒

My name is Betty Abbott, this is 2004 and I am aged 72.

In 1939 when war began I was 8 years old. I lived in a road off Russell Lane, East Barnet, with my Mother, Father and Sister Vivienne who was 4 years older than I. My Father was badly injured in the first world war so was not able to fight in 1939.

I clearly remember hearing the announcement on the wireless that 鈥淭his country was now at war with Germany鈥�. We had already been issued with gas masks, identity cards and in the garden we had an Anderson Shelter. My Father and a neighbour had dug a deep hole in the lawn and erected the shelter, lining the back and sides with cement, and covering the outside with mud and grass. Inside there was a wooden floor, a small mat, two bunks across the back and two wooden chairs together with a small paraffin lamp. Later in the war we were issued with ration books and clothing coupons, which made life very hard for my Mother who spent a lot of her day queuing for food. Like many younger children once clothing was rationed I wore mostly my Sister鈥檚 鈥榟and me down鈥� clothes.

In 1941 my Mother was ill and was admitted to Barnet Hospital and her Sister, my Aunt Rose, came to look after us. At this time the air raids in Barnet were quite bad and almost every night we slept in our shelter. My Mother was quite strict about this, but not so my Aunt, who liked her comfort. One night the bombing was bad and my Father wanted to go out into our shelter, but my Aunt said 鈥淣o way鈥�. It was just before 9 o鈥檆lock when bombs dropped on the houses in the road behind ours demolishing them. One bomb then fell behind our shelter blowing it into a large hole in the garden, fortunately for us all this took most of the blast. The noise was tremendous and we were all very frightened. In a matter of moments the windows broke and the back of the house slid down, we were left with dust, dirt and a big hole. My Aunt rushed to get out of the room and promptly fainted, blocking the doorway. My Sister and I tried to look after her whilst my Father tried to do something about all the mess. We spent the night in the front room and very early next morning my Aunt packed her case and left.

My Father took my Sister and I to stay with a friend in East Finchley, with strict instructions not to tell my Mother when we visited her in hospital. We stayed in East Finchley for some time, going to school there but going home every Saturday to shop for our rations. My Mother eventually came home from hospital just before the back of the house was rebuilt. Once this was done, my Sister and I were really glad to go back home.

The war for me was sometimes exciting, but often very frightening!

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