大象传媒

The following extracts are from 鈥極UR LIFE STORIES鈥� which my husband and I are in the process of writing.

The Air Raids 鈥� 1940

In 1940 I was nine years old. We were on our own in 1940 because dad was in the army with the BEF in Belgium. He was very lucky to be rescued from Dunkirk on the 4th June 1940. Mam was very nervous when the air raids started and would not sleep upstairs. She managed to pull the double mattress off the bed upstairs and put it behind the settee in the front room where we slept at night. If we did not hear the air raid siren our next-door neighbours would knock on the window. The sounds of the war are something no one will ever forget, the siren, the German planes overhead, the bangs of the aircraft guns, together with the sight of the search-lights shining into the sky, these were very frightening for children walking into a shelter.

Ayresome School should have opened on the 4th September 1940, but it was closed because of evacuation arrangements. On the 8th September many of the teachers from the school were evacuated with the children, but I stayed at home with mam. For the safety of the children who remained, on the 12th February 1940, Ayresome School had air raid shelters built in the schoolyards, but it was the 6th of May 1940 before they were ready for use. Gas masks had to be carried always by the adults and children alike. Mam put a bar of Cadbury鈥檚 chocolate in my gas mask box, saying 鈥淵ou must not eat it now, its for an emergency in case the school is bombed and you cannot get out of the shelter, at least you will have something to eat.鈥� Gas masks had been issued in cardboard boxes and had to be carried everywhere and in all weathers, which resulted in the boxes getting wet. My gas mask box started to show the purple colour from the wrapper around the chocolate bar. Eventually mam made a cloth bag to keep it dry. At the time of the war children were able to walk to and from school without any fear that harm would befall them. I walked to school every day and on most days, when returning home, had to wait for mam to come home, either one of her shopping trips, or perhaps helping out at the shop.

All school outings were cancelled, the only time I can remember being away from school was during an art lesson when the whole class visited the old cemetery next to the school in Parliament Road to draw trees. Every Friday afternoon we were allowed to go to the school playing field at West Lane, of course, there were no buses to spare for school journeys so the whole class had to walk there and back.

Every time the sirens sounded during the night children were dragged out of their warm beds and taken into cold dark shelters, the only lights were candles, paraffin lamps or torches. Being so nervous this was the worst time for mam, some nights she could not wake me and would literally pull me all the way to the shelter by my pyjama collar, not waiting to put my siren suit on. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, made Siren suits very popular, they were usually made out of old materials such as coats. At the end of a night raid many children were unable to get to school the next day because they were so tired, this meant that the school鈥檚 attendance dropped to only half the next day. It was not unusual for the siren to sound at 11:00 pm and the all clear at 4:00 am.

The air raids were the heaviest during 1940 and continued until 1943. With the raids coming practically every night at first and mam being so nervous, she and I moved to the shop with aunty Ena, uncle Walter and pa. The shop鈥檚 cellar came in very handy in 1940 when the night raids started and before the shelters were built. Aunty Ena and mam managed to get hold of some camp beds and these were placed in the cellar together with a small stove, a few cups and saucers for a hot drink. On the night of the 31st August 1940, pa and I slept in the cellar because the air raid was so heavy. When I woke up next morning, the 1st September, mam took me by the hand saying as we climbed the upstairs, 鈥淚 have something to show you.鈥� In aunty Ena鈥檚 bedroom I saw a new baby in a lovely basket cot. Mam said, 鈥淐ome and see your new cousin, a little boy.鈥� I was overjoyed, at last I thought, there was another child in the family and no longer on my own. It was as good as having a little brother. Aunty Edna asked me, 鈥淲hat should we call him?鈥� After a long thought, I said the name 鈥淓ric鈥�, why I do not know. My little cousin was christened 鈥楨ric Garth Jones鈥�.

The air raids over Middlesbrough were very bad at times, especially in moonlight, mainly because the planes could follow the river from the North Sea dropping their bombs on the many industrial sights around the town. It was the town that suffered the worst, as did the railway station, a department store in Linthorpe Road and many of the tightly packed houses in the small streets. One bomb narrowly missed the Town Hall in Corporation Road; instead it fell onto the gentlemen鈥檚 toilet, which was underground. I cannot remember whether it was rebuilt and used again, perhaps it was in time, but some years later it was filled in. The railway station was bombed on the 3rd of August 1942, Bank Holiday Monday.

One night when mam and I were living at the shop, there was a very heavy air raid over the town and the whole family had to rush into the street shelters in Buxton Street. Suddenly there was a hissing sound and uncle Walter looked out of the shelter doorway. He shouted in panic, 鈥淐ome on let鈥檚 get out of here, go back to the cellar.鈥� Of course, all the family did exactly that. When I emerged from the darkness of the shelter into the night air I shouted to mam, 鈥淟ook at the sky and the pretty lights鈥�. There were small lights floating down the whole length of Corporation Road on little parachutes. Mam said, 鈥淐ome on, hurry up, the Germans are dropping flares and lighting up the town.鈥� When I looked back halfway down Buxton Street there was a ball of fire coming from the houses, flames were blowing across the road. When we arrived back into the cellar, mam said, 鈥淲hat stupid fools we are, we could have been killed running into the street like that.鈥� The poor baby was crying with all the noise. That night the Germans dropped hundreds of incendiary bombs and we found out the next day that a full load of incendiaries had dropped on two houses in Buxton Street completely demolishing them. The hissing sound that was heard the night before had been the whole load of bombs dropping. If they had not fallen in one batch many more houses in the area would have gone up in smoke. One incendiary fell off auntie鈥檚 shop roof and slid down the side of the shop door. Another incendiary dropped through the roof of her neighbours shop (the Clark family) and landed on a bed. The neighbours knocked on auntie鈥檚 door asking for the stirrup pump. Pa rushed next door and found flames coming up from the bed where the bomb had fallen, but he managed to put the flames out. Stirrup pumps proved to be a very handy piece of fire fighting equipment during the war.

Garth, my cousin, slept in his cot at the foot of the bed in the same room as mam and I. One night when he was about two years old, the siren sounded and, mam, still panicking, shouted to me to get up and at the same time she grabbed Garth out of his cot. I started to cry saying, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 get out of the door鈥�, and mam shouted back, 鈥淥f course, you can鈥檛 you are standing in the wardrobe.鈥� When we got downstairs Garth was sat on the end of the banister, which had a rolled end, but still being sleepy he fell off. Thankfully he was no worse for this mishap. There were always unforeseen things happening when the siren went off mainly because everyone panicked to get to the shelter.

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