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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education’s reminiscence team on behalf of Pat Duberley and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I lived on the outskirts of Birmingham during the war and remember going down the air raid shelter — being underground and covered over so that I felt safe. There were benches inside where we sat. I didn’t feel much sense of panic during air raids, so I wouldn’t run like mad for cover.

I carried a yellowy coloured gas mask over my shoulder, which was on a long strap. We would roll up our gas masks and put them underneath our desks during lessons at school. I remember having some of our classes outside in the open air.

There was not much direct bombing where I lived, but I would go outside and stand on the lawn to watch the planes in the sky and the bombing in the distance. I didn’t really feel that there was any danger, except at night when we would hear the noise and go outside to see what was happening. Then we would be told to get everybody inside.

My sister Jean and brother Bill were evacuated. Bill was very tall and the lady he was staying with was much shorter than him. She had expected a young child and ended up with someone big enough to play Rugby, so after a while Bill was sent to boarding school. Sometime during the war, I moved to Llandudno in Wales with my family to be safer.

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