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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Wartime in London (Holborn)

by 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk Action Desk

Contributed by听
大象传媒 Radio Norfolk Action Desk
People in story:听
Dorothy Blake
Location of story:听
Holborn, London
Background to story:听
Civilian Force
Article ID:听
A4116016
Contributed on:听
25 May 2005

This contribution to People鈥檚 War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk and submitted to the website with the permission and on behalf of Dorothy Blake
When the war started I was 17 and lived in Holborn, London, with my family. My parents were very strict. Just down the road from where I lived was a club where people would go and sing and have a good time but no one told me about it until after the war.

I remember the rationing it was very hard for people to buy food. On one occasion my brother in law came round and he saw a piece of meat I had bought from a butcher he said 鈥渉ow did you manage to get that? We have not seen a piece like that for ages鈥. That is how hard it was, when people were jealous about a joint of meat.

During the war I worked in the munitions industry by day and also (part time) for the Fire Service.

When I left school I worked in a leather factory. One day when I arrived at work it had been burnt down after an air raid. Another factory in which I worked made components, out of mica, for aeroplanes. This was very dirty work as I worked using carborundum and I used to go home with dust in my hair that would not wash out. At the time no one told us that this was dangerous. There was also not enough light to see what you were doing. When I complained I was moved into a room all by myself. In those days people were not worried about the health of workers and these sort of conditions would not be allowed today.

Part of my work with the fire service was to look after St Paul鈥檚 cathedral which was known as 鈥淐hurchill鈥檚 baby.鈥 My main job was to work a telephone exchange. The Germans would drop incendiary bombs and our job was to put them out. This was not always easy as the water in the Thames was sometimes low and we could not pump out the water.

For safety most people would go down the underground during an air raid but I never went as my mother would not go for health reasons.

Before a raid the silence was deafening there was no music or people making it was eerie. Then the sirens would sound the warning and then the planes would come you could hear bombs all round.

Once I walked to Mount Pleasant after work finished. The block of flats opposite had been hit and we could hear people shouting and screaming. My mother thought that I had been killed and sent my sister to find me.

My future husband lived about a quarter of a mile away and a large bomb dropped just outside of his house but did not explode. When it was recovered we were surprised to see the size of it. We were all so lucky that it did not explode.

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