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I was working in agricultural and seed merchants to get chicken meal. You had to surrender your egg ration so it is lucky we had two a month. I had to do fire watching on Sundays at the shop, the older men did the nights and there were large static water tanks placed all about.
The night of Bath Blitz I was with my mother and sister sheltering in the table shelter in the scullery. When it seemed quiet I crept out into the garden and looked towards town and I saw that the east works were on fire. Friends who were bombed out that first night came and stayed with us. A friend who lived in town was badly cut by machine gunning in the streets as she ran, sadly her mum was killed. Going to the shop that morning I looked down a hole only to learn it was an unexploded bomb. I had to queue for stuff to cover up what was left of the windows and also at a canteen set up at school where we could get a meal.
My sister was called up into the T.H.E.A.T.S and served on the Ack Ack at Weymouth and Portland. My two brothers were R.A.F regulars, one in India and one in Egypt. The one in Egypt came back to England and was stationed at Coningsby on Lancasters. The eldest went to Burma.
All food was rationed and we grew what we could in our garden and would exchange with friends any spares. We kept chickens in a shed at the end of the garden. Our only defence after the three nights was machine gun on a lorry. All clothes could only be bought on rations of coupons.
Seeing the devastation in daylight is a thing and I will never ever forget and even now to hear a ‘siren’ brings it all back. We had a ginger cat who disappeared during the Blitz but returned safe and sound afterwards.
On a lighter note, two elderly ladies who lived opposite us had a name plate of their name ‘Townsend’ on their gate. This had to be removed in case of invasion as they were one mile from the town centre.

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