大象传媒

Anecdotes of a Youth in Wartime Birmingham.

My daughter Elaine said, 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 you write down some of your little stories, Dad鈥� So that is what I have done.

I NEVER LEFT SCHOOL
Just before the war started, kids from the cities were evacuated to the country. The city schools closed. I was thirteen and a half, and decided to stay in Birmingham.
So, I never left school. The school left me.

SHRAPNEL THROUGH THE ROOF.
The loft was a dark and mysterious place. No one in the family had ever been up there. One day, a friend and I decided to explore. Unfortunately, my friend鈥檚 foot slipped off a rafter onto the lath and plaster ceiling, sending a chunk of plaster into my bedroom below. After getting down from the loft, I cleaned the plaster from the bedroom floor, but could do nothing about the hole in the ceiling. Luckily, no one noticed the hole during the day. Then, that night there was an air raid. A piece of shrapnel came through the roof, in just the right position to look as though it could also have caused the hole in the ceiling. How lucky can you get?
Subsequently, I retrieved the piece of shrapnel from the loft. I think I still have it, tucked away in a box somewhere.

ANOTHER PIECE OF SHRAPNEL
It was the night of the devastating, air raid on Coventry. No bombs were falling on Birmingham, but the bombers were obviously passing over the city, and the Birmingham guns were putting up a tremendous barrage.
My friend Billy Knight and myself had been to the Mayfair Cinema. It was a fine night, and there was no danger from bombing, so we strolled along College Road.
Then we heard ripping noises and the crack of shrapnel on the pavement. There was a big oak tree about ten feet away from a warehouse building. We took shelter there, standing shoulder to shoulder, with our backs to the tree, and facing the warehouse.
Then there was a zip and thud as a piece of shrapnel buried itself in the tree, between our heads. Once again, how lucky can you get?

YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOUR NUMBER IS UP.
Kingstanding was spared heavy bombing. We were not in the centre of the city, nor were there any strategic targets in the district. So, we only got a few stray bombs, though we did not know what to expect at the time.
A couple living in Finchley Road (Which was a continuation of our road) were in bed when an air raid started. The wife shook her husband, then got up, and went to the shelter in the garden. The husband said he would follow, but instead he stayed in bed.
A bomb hit the shelter, killing the lady instantly. The husband was unharmed in bed.

THE TOMATOES
In the course of time we got hardened to air raids, so, if it was not too heavy we just carried on as normal. My uncle Jack was visiting, and we were about to have supper of cheese and tomatoes. Mother was in the pantry getting the tomatoes. Not a lot seemed to be happening outside, when suddenly there was the scream of a bomb, which seemed to be coming right at us. We threw ourselves to the floor, and mother dived out of the pantry with a plate of tomatoes. The bomb landed elsewhere. There seemed to be a deathly silence afterwards, and all I can remember hearing was the sound of tomatoes rolling on the linoleum.

THE INCENDIARY BOMB.
In a cinema, when the air raid sirens went, a message would be flashed on the screen, saying that the show would continue. Patrons who wished to stay were invited to move to the back stalls, under the (dubious) shelter of the balcony.
I cannot remember whether, on this occasion, we stayed until the end of the film or not, but coming out of the cinema, my friend and I walked towards the public air raid shelter about a hundred yards away.
On our way there, we found ourselves in the middle of a shower of incendiary bombs. It is almost impossible to describe the sound they made coming down. The nearest I can say is that it was like a gale wind, but much louder.
The road was a wide dual carriageway; the houses had large gardens, and there were open spaces behind the shops, so the bombs mainly fell harmlessly.
One landed near to us on the pavement. The phosphorus in it burned with a dazzling bright light. Then a fourteen-year-old lad named Cartwright ran up to it and, in a show of bravado, he kicked it. Unfortunately, the Germans had recently added an explosive to the bomb. This shattered his leg, which was subsequently amputated. Adults carried him to the shelter, and did the best they could for him. An ambulance was called, but it was an hour or two before it arrived.
Meanwhile the incendiary bombs had been extinguished, or burned themselves out, without starting any serious fires, which would have guided bombers to a target.

"CAN YOU HELP ME LADS?"
There had been a long lull on the air raids. I was talking to friends outside the Mayfair cinema. It was a very dark night, in the blackout of course, when an elderly lady came up to us and said, 鈥淐an you help me lads? My eyesight is not very good鈥�. She wanted to go along Mayfair Passage, a long dark and narrow pedestrian way, between College Road and Plumstead Road. We helped her.
Can you imagine an elderly lady approaching a group of youths in the dark today?

THE MEMENTO.
My mother happened to bump into an old friend, Nell Sheard, who she had not seen for many years. Her friend said that she had moved into the locality, and invited mother to visit. During that visit, I remember that my mother admired a small pair of white-metal candlesticks on the sideboard. Nell insisted that mother should take them as a memento of old friendship. About one week later, the memento became a memorial. Nell was killed in an air raid while visiting her daughter.
I still treasure those little candlesticks.

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