大象传媒

Life in Newburn

I was 6 years old when war was declared, 7 on 6th November 1939. I lived 2 doors below Newburn Police Station. One day my brother and I were asked had we seen the Spitfire Pilot鈥檚 parachute from his aeroplane. I didn鈥檛 as I was too busy watching its dog fight 鈥� the first German bomber was disabled and falling, then I watched the second German bomber crash to earth. The policeman didn鈥檛 believe me but I did see those 2 bombers crash. Many years later maybe 3 or 4 or more the plane I saw crashing was found in Cumbria. There was a report of a German WWII plane found 鈥� I didn鈥檛 say anything as I wasn鈥檛 believed the first time.

A FUNNY TALE

All the men in Vickers Armstrong working in dad鈥檚 Section were working 24 hours with 4 of those hours off to eat and sleep. He refused to leave his bed in one air raid. A land mine fell on Throckley Dene and bounced dad out of his bed, where he was still asleep and snoring. Mum woke him up. He never ever slept through another air raid.

When we were warned of a gas alert and everyone was issued with gas masks my mother made our living room into a 鈥済as proof鈥� room. She stuffed the chimney up with all sorts (we were not allowed to watch), put a thick blanket up at the door and a bucket of water near. Had a sideboard filled with tins of fruit and fruit juice that you could buy legally off ration as she said it would be the first thing to go (drinking water, that is) and if we had 3 weeks of juice we may survive. For comfort needs there was a bucket curtained off in the corner.

The council sent many people to see our room but after the war no one remembered it. Mother admitted she didn鈥檛 really know at the time whether it really was gas proof but she had to encourage people not to be so frightened and gloomy when we had God and Churchill. The bucket of water at the door was to soak the blanket so that no gas could penetrate.

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