大象传媒

The following are my Mother's experiences in the war before I was born.
Miss Amy Perry (mother) lived in Hopstone Road Birmingham and worked at MEM on Broad Street, Birmingham.

As she was the only lady in the street who did not have a child she had to turn out with a gang of 13 men to do Fire Watching duties in the road. She also had to do Fire Watching at her place of work.

Her Mother would not go into the shelter so she would put her Mum and her dog (Judy a cocker spaniel) under the stairs for protection during a raid.
Judy always knew when the bombers where coming long before the siren went for she would wine and cry. She was never wrong.

My Mother then had to run into houses in the street and turn off the gas tap before the raid started. Then run with her bucket of sand and put out the incendiaries as the fell.

At the MEM she told me if there was not a raid they used to sing to pass the time. One man in particular was a real laugh and he used to grab a girl and dance the Apache with her, swinging her all over the room. Everyone would be rolling around laughing.

The sad side was her best friend who was a very good singer was killed in a raid. Her family had gone to the pictures but she stayed at home. The house took a direct hit and all they found was her hand lodged in a tree.

My Mum was awarded a certificate for bravery during fire watching; she would rather have had a joint of meat as there was no food to be had and she was hungry.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anastasia Travers a volunteer with WM CSV Actiondesk on behalf of Enid Brown and has been added to the site with his permission. Enid Brown fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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