大象传媒

War was declared approx three weeks before my tenth birthday. Return to school for the autumn term was delayed by two weeks. I suppose that was to allow the powers that be to inform the teachers of their responsibilities to the pupils in event of an emergency.
My father, my brother and myself were all heavy sleepers and we relied on my mother to wake us when the siren sounded. At the time of the incident dad was on war work at Desford Aerodrome, mam was in the Royal Infirmary after being knowcked down by a cyclist. Whilst mam was in hospital the siren sounded, the neighbours were knocking and banging on both the front and back doors in a vain attempt to wake us up. The following morning we found out that a stick of bombs had straddled Braunstone Park, approx three quaters of a mile away and that mam was being sent home because beds were needed for the casualties.
The next incident happened whilst my brother, myself and some friends were playing at soldiers in our back garden. It was a dull, grey day and we saw an aeroplane come out of the clouds. We all prided ourselves on our ability to recognise all sorts of aircraft and agreed we had seen a HEINKEL 111, in fact one of our pals said that he had seen black crosses on the wings. Shortly after this siting the siren sounded and we dashed for the shelter. We learned later that a bomb had dropped on Cavendish Road.
In 1945 I was a pupil at the Gateway School. Our sports afternoons were spent on the playing fields at the top of Somerset Avenue. We were cycling home when a lady standing at the front gate of one of the houses shouted to us that the war was over. We did not know whether to believe her but as we travelled along Fosse Road we saw boys from Mantle Road School who told us that it was true and that they had been told that the next day was a holiday.

'This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Sara-Jane Higginbottom of the CSV Action Desk Leicester on behalf of Thomas ROy Johnson and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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