大象传媒

I can remember very vividly being told one Sunday morning in 1939 that war had been declared - I was just over 6 years old at the time. My recollections of the war are as follows:

1. Going into our air raid shelter when there was an air raid - we had an 'Anderson' shelter constructed in a neighbours' garden. Other neighbours had brick built shelters erected in their back yards. One neighbour had a 'Morrison' shelter in a room in their house. The flush steel top of this shelter acted as a table.

2. We had Air Raid Shelters at school and we had to go in them if there was an air raid during school hours. We also had to go in them to have our gas masks tested - they filled the shelters with tear gas, or something similar, and we had to go inside the shelter wearing our masks so as to test them for leaks. The masks were modified on at least one occasion by the attachment of a filter to the bottom of the mask. This was done by the local ARP Wardens who used some form of adhesive tape to attach the filter.

3. Gas masks had to be carried at all times.

4. There were supplies of barley sugar sweets at the school to be given out to pupils when we were in the shelter. There were also battery powered hand lamps to provide illumination in the shelters.

5. Sometimes we did not have to go to school! At the beginning of the war I went on Monday morning, Tuesday afternoon, Thursday morning and Friday afternoon. This was so that no more than 50% of pupils were at school at one time. Later we attended reasonably full time - the only adjustments being due to air raids. If there was an air raid at night then we did not start school until 10.00 a.m. the following morning. If the air raid continued after a certain specified time then we did not go to school until the following afternoon.

6. I can remember the shrapnel lying in the streets and the pieces of aluminium foil dropped by the aeroplanes - theirs and ours. I can also remember the aeroplane which crash landed near Redburn Row, Chilton Moor.

7. My mother and I used to go out on each Friday evening to collect waste paper. We took it to a shed at the rear of George Graham's shop at Bank Head, Fence Houses from where it was collected during the following week.

8. I can well remember the use of ration books and the points system. At one stage I think that you could buy one - 2ounce bar of chocolate per month.

9. One of my friends, who was a few years older than I, was a messenger for the ARP Wardens. There was an ARP post at Fence Houses railway station and another at Bank Head.

10. At the end of the war there were a number of street parties held to celebrate the event.

Alan Vickers.

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