大象传媒

Staffordshire County Council libraries, on behalf of the author, have submitted this story. The author fully understands the rules and regulation of the Peoples War website.

As a child, just in infant school, I was too young to be scared. I remember all the children learning to knit socks, and the infants winding the wool. The school had practice air raids, all going to the shelter in a crocodile.

The main memory of the war was of queques; most mothers worked in munitions at Radway Green so the children had to queque for the rations. Rations were often given out in alphabetical order, and as our family name began with a W, the best was often gone. We seemed to spend most of our spare time in a queque at the bakeshop, which is still the site of a cake shop to this day.

Audley itself, as a small village was not a target of enemy bombers, but it was on the route to the Crewe engineering works and there were often air raid warnings as the planes went overhead. My father was in the Auxillary Fire Service and was often on duty during raids. I still have his tin hat. An incendiary bomb did land in the area known as "Town Fields", very close to the village.

When the air-raid warnings were given the family went to the pantry under the stairs. Once, while the planes were overhead, we heard a whistling noise, and thought that bombs were coming down, but when the all clear sounded, we found out that it had been the kettle whistling! If mother was at the munitions factory on the evening shift, a neighbour put us to bed and if the siren started, she had to come back to take us to her house.

Audley had evacuees from Coventry, they came with only what they could carry and were given out to the villagers without any previous consultation.

As there was no television, only newsreels, young children did not really understand what was going on, things like quequeing, evacuees and walking into lamposts in the black-out were just a way of life.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.