大象传媒

The war for us started very quietly. Every family got an Anderson air read shelter to erect. First, a hole had to be dug in the Garden, with the soil put into bags that were provided, then the corrugated iron sheets bolted together, were placed in the hole and bags placed on top and around the sheets. Bunk beds were installed and everything made ready for use.

These shelter were put to all sorts of uses; card games were sometimes played on rainy days and one shelter in the next street had magic lanterns. A white sheet was stretched across a cut out piece of wood to form a screen, behind which figures cut from cardboard and fixed to wire to handle them, were projected onto screens by means of a candle. The price of admission was two cigarette cards.

After we had been refused admission because we had no cards, decided to smoke the occupants out with a stink bomb. This was made by rolling up a piece of paper the paper was then set alight till the celluloid caught fire then the paper was stamped on to extinguish the flame and from this came clouds of smoke. This device was then thrown into the shelter, which was emptied at top speed.

Every one was issued with a gas mask, even babies had a special Mickey Mouse design type and these masks were carried everywhere you went. When the air raids began, a warning was given by the wailing of sirens. This was usually at night-time. In the darkness came the drone of aircraft guns from all over the region blasted their reply, trying to shoot the planes down. Searchlights probed the darkness to spot the enemy. That word enemy, I suppose the Germans used it to describe us.

When the raid was over, the sirens sounded the all clear, and, if this was after midnight, we did not have to go to school that day. This pleased me and I spent the day looking for shrapnel fragment of bombs and shells. I had a good collection of this plus a shell nose cap and the tail fin of an incendiary bomb.

One night the Newcastle railway goods years was bombed. The flames could be seen for miles around and was still smouldering three weeks later. That night I was at the Cinema with friends so we started to make our way home, but the anti aircraft guns were blasting away and shrapnel was bouncing off the road, so we dashed into a brick built air raid shelter.

When things went quiet for a while we decided to make a dash for home although the all clear had not sounded.

The nest day I went over to Newcastle to see the situation, where, water and gas mains were damaged, broken barrels of lard and other goods were spread all over the place, and railway wagons were anywhere but on tracks. It was complete carnage. One wagon must have been blown very high over a few streets, and had to drop vertically into a brick lane, as miraculously the walls on either side of the lane were intact. I had to crawl under the wagon and get passed. The firemen and civil defence personal were all going about their duties to help with rescue and recovery.

I suppose the German aircrews, who had dropped the bombs had also been doing the same, going about their duties. One thinks of death and devastation in such cities as London, Coventry, Berlin and Dresden caused by people dropping bombs on people they didn鈥檛 even know, just because nations were in disagreement, but that鈥檚 the way of war.

At one time armies met in some field and went into battle and all the casualties were armed forces. All the wars since those days have involved more and more civilians including women, children and old folk who have nothing to do with the decisions. They just want to get on with their lives, but suffer the consequences. When will nations negotiate their differences peacefully and the money and resources spent on arms be used to improve standards of living and quality of life? Never I suppose.

To find out what happened to John when he was evacuated see 鈥淐hildhood Memories II鈥�.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jim Salveson from the CSV Action Desk on behalf of John Lumsdon and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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