大象传媒

Growing Up In World War 2!

I remember Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announcing that England were at war with Germany. My immediate thought was that my father may be sent off to fight in the war, as most men went were between 18 and 35 although alot of the soldiers volunteered at a younger age, as they were prepared to fight for their country. Men went off to fight, as women were left at home to carry out their own and the mens duties.

During the black-outs, police and ARP-Air raid Precautions came round to check if you were in complete darkness. Gas masks and baby gas masks were issued to everybody and these were carried at all times. During air raids, we would have to go down the cellar as we did not have an air raid shelter like many others, and living near to Cosford we lived in a target area. our life continued in this way for over 6 years.

This was not the only way our lives were changed, rationing and evacuees also played a big part in our lives during the war. Many Items were rationed, including soap, tea, eggs, sweets, cheese, furniture and even clothing was rationed for 5 years after the war ended. Fruits such as oranges and bananas were totally unavailable and were not seen until well after the war. As we lived on a farm, we were lucky in that we had luxuries such as readily available meat, dairy products, eggs and were we able to make our own jam as we had plenty of fruit from our own sources.

On the farm our first prisoner of war was a Ukranian named Alex, who was transported by lorry. He was a quiet, kind gentleman. Later a Polish man arrived, Pasquari, he made toys for the children, out of scrap metal and wood. There were German POWs encamped at Teddesley Hall, Penkridge. I felt it was a great shame that we were at War with these countries, when the people were friendly and kind.

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