大象传媒

When I started to go to school in 1941 the war had been going on for a couple of years and I was beginning to understand more about it. At Blaby C of E school which at that time was the only infants and junior school in the village we all had to take our gas masks daily to school with us. Once or twice a week we would have to practice in case of an air raid. The teachers would assemble each class and then beginning with the five year olds we would be marched in two lines to either end of the long air raid shelter which went across the whole of the bottom of the playground and enter through the doors which were situated at each end. This procedure happened with each of the six classes until we were all in the shelter.

The shelter was built of house bricks with a very thick reinforced concrete roof. Inside the length of the shelter on each side was a wooden slatted bench we all had to sit on and be very quiet so we could hear the instructions given out by one of the teachers. It was very dark inside as there was not any electricity in the building. The only light was at the ends near the doors if they were left open or if one of the teachers had a lamp. We then were told to put out gas masks on and breathe normally. We were pleased when we could take them off and get back outside because it was cold, damp and smelled awful in there. (Many years later I found out that some types of mask were more dangerous than probably German gas bombs might have been because we were breathing through coiled asbestos rope.) Not all masks were the same. Mine was a standard one, my sister had one that looked like Micky Mouse and the twins who were babies had a rectangular box type thing that they were laid in as if it were cot and covered with a lid of some sort.

Regarding shelters, the same type that was in the playground were dotted all over the village and some people had pits in their gardens and put corrugated Nissan huts in them and covered them over with soil etc. As it was a good distance to our nearest shelter, we used to come down stairs and sit in the pantry beneath them when the siren sounded. Mother used to keep us amused. Dad was always out making sure the blackout was being properly observed and to look out for any unusual activity going off. One some occasions later in the war I would walk with him. Once we saw a German bomber flying towards the south and very low. One could always tell a German plane because of the drone that it made when flying. I don鈥檛 know what happened to the plane afterwards. Dad said that it looked as if it had been damaged. Someone also said that it dropped a bombed near Countesthorpe to make itself lighter so that is had a chance to get home. I do not know if that was true or not but as a lad patrolling with his Dad at night it sounded exciting. It would be hard today for youngsters to understand was blackout was like when the only lights came from the moon or stars on a clear night. I鈥檝e often wondered whether or not we celebrated Guy Fawkes in those days because I cannot remember if we were allowed to have fires or not. I know we didn鈥檛 have any fireworks.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Liz Towner of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Ronald S Cass and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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