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I remember bombs being dropped on Birmingham — there was one in Alleyne Road on which there was a general store called Roses. The lady was found dead under a gas stove. And the other one was Montague or Montpellier Road in Erdington. There was also a bomb dropped on Dunlop’s wages office by a lone day light bomber which I saw fly over our garden followed by a cloud of smoke and dust about lunch time. At the age of 11 years I dug out and erected an Anderson air raid shelter all by myself and at the age of 13 years on my birthday in fact I dealt with the first explosives incendiary bomb which landed against a match wood shed. I put a sandbag on top of it but the flames still came up around the bag so I scooped up the pail to douse the flames and as I stood back it blew up into my face. I received shrapnel wounds a burnt face and was blind for ten days. We also witnessed thick black smoke from oil burning canisters for blocking out the moonlight due to this area having the following factories — Vicker Armstrong which made the Spit fires, Dunlops, aeroplane and motors, Valour, Aston chain and hook, Nuffields, Bromford tubes and many more vital factories.

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