大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Deena Campbell from CSV Action Desk on behalf of Donald Bonehill and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Bonehill fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was eight years old when WW2 broke out. A year before the war started we moved for family reasons from Northfield (in the leafy suburbs) to Barford Road, Ladywood, close to an industrial centre. This proved to be a poor decision. An even worse decision was made by the neighbours of my Grandparents who lived a few hundred yards away in Summerfield Crescent overlooking Rotten Park Reservoir; because the reservoir would be a focal point for bombers. These neighbours moved a short distance further away to a house at the corner of Gillot Road and Link Road. One night I heard a hissing noise and the first bomb in the area landed at the junction of Gillot Road and Link Road. Outside their house, shortly afterwards the reservoir was drained to half its size.

The proximity of the factories meant that the area was quite heavily bombed.

I remember riding my bike along Gillot Road when a time bomb exploded further on between Portland Road and Rotten Park Road causing a gas main to catch fire.

On another occasion I lay ill in bed and listened to a single aircraft circling overhead. Suddenly there was a big flash and bang and a landmine had landed in Icknield Street. My mother ran into the house screaming.

During the early hours of one night, Docker Bros, the Paint Factory in Rotten Park Street was bombed and caught fire. We were in our Anderson shelter and could see the flames above the roofs of the houses. After the all clear, we stood in the road and could see the flames were higher than adjoining factory chimney stacks. A lot of people went closer for a better look but our father wouldn鈥檛 let us because of the possibility of returning planes to what was now a landmark.

We regularly went to the Crown Cinema in Icknield Port Road. When the Air Raid Sirens were sounded, a message was flashed onto the screen giving everybody the option to stay or leave. Quite often everyone鈥檚 Identity Card was checked before leaving the cinema.

The anti-aircraft fire was very noisy during bombing raids but later in the war I understand that rocket firing projectors were located in fields at Stonehouse and Frankley which sent up a barrage about the cross sectional area of Lewis鈥檚 (the old department store) and deterred enemy bombers. Unfortunately the spent rockets fell onto houses but were otherwise effective.

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