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This story was submitted to the People’s War website by Sarah Butcher of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Mrs Ann Grace and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Ann Grace was 4 years old when war broke out and she remembers that they had an Anderson shelter in the garden, a proper one with a dug out floor (which after the war was used to store potatoes) and which had an air pipe in the corner. Her Dad had ferrets in a cage at the top of the garden which were used for ‘rabbitting’ and her Mum wasn’t terribly fond of them at all.
Like so many others, Ann’s Mum was fearful for her children in wartime and afraid of the bombs that fell; however her biggest fear was that their garden would get hit, freeing the ferrets from their cage. This would have enabled the creatures to enter the shelter via the air pipe, resulting in Ann’s Mum being stuck in the shelter with them until the all clear!

Ann’s family lived in a house off the main London to Exeter road and she remembers convoys of soldiers being transported along the road regularly. Often the transporters would stop by the side of the road and all the ladies would take out trays of tea, cake or biscuits, or whatever they had, for the soldiers. They would chat to the troops while they had their tea, giving something back for the soldiers before they had to get on their way.

There was also a garage on the other side of the road that the Americans took over in wartime and used it to repair and maintain their vehicles. At the end of the war the Americans cleaned it up inside and threw a party for all the local families, especially the children. The soldiers gave the children chewing gum if they had it and Ann remembers they were very generous to everyone.

Sometimes during the war English soldiers would be invited for a family meal, but Ann and her sister would plague the life out of them, wanting the soldiers to play games with them and try on their caps, belts and puttees (a ‘bandage’ style part of the uniform worn on the leg).
Ann’s mother always said that if the Germans did invade she’d set the children on them and the Germans wouldn’t stand a chance!

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