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Interview by Gemma with her Grandad, Harry:

G.J: Hi, thank you for talking to us this afternoon.
H.H: Hello.
G.J: Where did you live in 1939?
H.H: I lived in Walton on Thames, Surrey.
G.J: And how old were you when the war broke out?
H.H: I was 6 years old.
G.J: Can you remember how you and your family reacted to the announcement of the war?
H.H: Well we were devastated, I mean totally frightened - you can imagine, especially with the children.
G.J: How were and your family affected by the war?
H.H: Well my father had to go into the army, which just left my mother to look after five children.
G.J: So you weren't evacuated?
H.H: No, we weren't evacuated, no.
G.J: Did you feel, because you weren't evacuated, that you were at risk?
H.H: Well yes, because we lived just south of London, so we had air raids everyday and every evening, you know.
G.J: Can you remember what your parents did in the war?
H.H: Well, my father was in the army, serving abroad, and my mother had to stay at home looking after the family.
G.J: And what was your father's role in the army?
H.H: Well he was a soldier, a gunner actually.
G.J: Did he tell you about any of his experiences in the war?
H.H: Well yes, there was one in particular, when he was very nearly killed. Luckily the bullet went under his helmet, and just grazed his head, and came through the back of his helmet. He still had the scar there, where the bullet had been, after the war. So he had a very close shave, you know.
G.J: Lucky. And when did he leave the armed forces?
H.H: After the war.
G.J: Could you explain what happened during some of the air raids and how you felt at the time?
H.H: There were constant air raids, especially near London; we spent every night in the air raid shelter, and we used to sleep in there. The sirens were constantly going, so instead of running out of the house every time the sirens went off (and we did at first), everyone used to sleep in the air raid shelters. When we were at school, if the sirens went off, we used to have our lessons in the shelters.
G.J: Did each street have an air raid shelter?
H.H: Every house had an air raid shelter, supplied by the Ministry of course. And the schools had big, long ones, and there were public ones, of course, so you could go to the nearest shelter when a siren went off.
G.J: And what were they made of?
H.H: Well, some of them were made from corrugated steel, buried in the ground, and reinforced concrete, sunk into the ground, dug out and covered in earth.
G.J: And when there was an air raid, did you feel scared, or was it just like an everyday occurrence?
H.H: Well, as I said, it was underground, and it was quite safe. As long as the air craft weren't firing in our area, you felt O.K, you know - as long as they were in the distance. But as soon as they were near, you felt scared.
G.J: There was obviously rationing in the war, how did the system work?
H.H: Well, everything was rationed and the Ministry was quite strict, you know. Our family had small-holdings where we raised chickens, pigs, things like that and everything had to be registered. Every pig, chicken, cow had to be registered for rationing. You couldn't just kill them yourself and sell them, they had to be registered.
G.J: And what about rationing books?
H.H: Rationing books, yes, yes. We had rationing books for everything.
G.J: What were the impacts of rationing? Did you eat some foods more than others?
H.H: Well, yeah, we mostly ate vegetables. They had this saying `Dig for victory.' Instead of planting flowers they'd plant vegetables and so we lived mostly on the vegetables that we grew. You were allowed to use them- it wasn't like the livestock.
G.J: Were clothes and jewellery rationed?
H.H: Yes - even though you had coupons, you couldn't use them because all of the factories were making munitions.
G.J: Did that account for children's toys, machines and material too?
H.H: Yes, everything. The old toys were passed down from one to the other.
G.J: O.K. And when did the rationing end?
H.H: 1948, I think, quite a long time after the war.
G.J: At the time, can you remember what other people's opinions were towards the Germans, even if they too were against the Nazis?
H.H: Well, we felt the same about them as we did for us. We knew they were under threat the same as us, you see, and so we felt the same. It was only the Nazis, the military, which we didn't think much of. The actual people we felt the same about.
G.J: Did you hear much news, during the war, of what was going on in other occupied countries?
H.H: Well there was propaganda, of course. Things to build morale, but we weren't sure whether it was always true.
G.J: Did you hear anything about the Holocaust, any rumours?
H.H: Not until towards the end of the war, when it all came to light, most of it came to light- about the camps and the extermination of the Jews. Until then it was all kept very secret. We never heard about any of it — well, the ordinary people didn't.
G.J: Did you see your father at all during the war?
H.H: No, he was away for 4 years in the Middle East and we didn't see him from the day he went, to when he came back, in 1944.
G.J: How did you cope with that?
H.H: Well, my mother was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. She had 5 children and my eldest brother and eldest sister helped look after us, we all pulled together and helped each other. All our neighbours, relatives, friends, we all mucked in and helped each other. They were mostly all women because all the men had gone to war.
G.J: How do you remember the end of the war- how did your family react?
H.H: Well, especially when we knew dad was coming home, all the boys were coming back, we were obviously very excited - you can imagine, if you haven't seen your father for 4 years. It was a lovely, joyous time.
G.J: Are there any happy or sad memories which jump out at you when you think about the war?
H.H: The end I suppose. We had happy memories of all mucking in together. The teachers having to cope with a whole class load of children, having to teach them in an air raid shelter. We used to have a few laughs, yeah.
G.J: O.K. Thank you very much for giving up your time. It's been really interesting to hear some of your experiences. Thanks

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