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This is Amy Patterson of Southmoor Community School, Sunderland entering George Cutting's story onto the website and they fully understand the website terms and conditions of use.

It was a lovely Sunday morning on the 3rd September 1939 when war was declared against Germany. The scale of the conflict was at first not apparent to seven year old boy. Then after a while, things started to happen to make me apprehensive. We moved from being carefree to being fearful of our future.

When the war first started: We got Blackout regulations, we got our gas masks fitted, we had to dig out the Anderson shelters and our school windows were covered with tape to stop any damage from bomb blasts. Some of the people I knew were evacuated. There was an army camp with anti-aircraft guns built behind ASDA at Leechmere. Men who lived near us started to leave, joining the armed forces, but my dad worked in the coalmine at Ryhope so did not have to join up (like men in the shipyards.) My dad joined the home guard too.

Also, we got ration books and new I.D cards . The rations brought new experiences like queuing, growing our own vegetables in our garden and also keeping poultry and rabbits to eat. I remember every morning I used to get up very early and go to queue for meat at the butchers. I was always first there. I waited in line for an hour then my mum came to take my place in the queue while I went home to have my breakfast!

I never realised the wars' extent until there were air raid warnings and trips to the Anderson shelter. My dad went out as a warden, while my mum took me and my sister to the shelter then went back out and collected my next-door neighbour and her three children. My job was to carry the big brown bag with all of the important documents and insurance policy in. We could always hear bombs dropping and the sound of the guns from the army camp at Leechmere. When we came out of the shelter there was always a lot of damage and some people had been killed during the bombing. Then, a hospital was built near by at Ryhope for the wounded soldiers. We often saw men walking through Ryhope village with their blue uniforms on, who were wounded soldiers.

Fortunately, the war ended before I left school. On VE day there were lots of street parties, which were a way to celebrate a horrible period in our time.

My wish is that anyone reading this story will never have to experience another war.

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