大象传媒

Muriel Russell:
I was in the Land Army, and was called up at 22. I can remember when the war started it was very quiet and it wasn't until 1940 that the first bomb went off in my area. The places that I can remember getting bombed in Ipswich were Holywells Park and Gainsborough. I also remember a landmine being dropped near Ipswich Cemetery .When the air raid sirens went off I had to go to the air raid shelter (Anderson Shelters) at the bottom of the garden, I remember having to stay there all night, at first I felt scared but as I got used to it I knew that it was for my own safety.
Everything was rationed and this is an outline as to what was available: we were only allowed 2oz of butter, not much sugar , powdered egg, which although it sounds disgusting I actually liked, and 2oz of sweets. Food wasn't the only thing rationed, clothes were also rationed. I can remember that I had a coat made out of a blanket.
The bombs I feared the most were called "Doodlebugs" and they were the biggest and the scariest. They used to be really loud and they had flames that came out of the back of them.
Some people got skin rashes that were caused by the bombs. To stop this from developing there used to be sulphur tablets that were taken, also another way to stop the rashes were to have a bath. I remember that near where 1 lived there used to be a communal bath, the bath had sulphur in it and many people had to use them so that they didn't get rashes. I didn't like going to those but knew it had to be done.
Although there was a war going on I used to still go out with my friends, mainly to dances and things like that. When we came out of places like that there weren't any streetlights on and we used to have to carry torches about.
I didn't feel unsafe as there was a lot of military presence about and it was probably safer to go out at night in those days than it is nowadays.

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