大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Elizabeth Perez of Stockport Libraries on behalf of "Porridge" and has been added to the site with his permission, he fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

"In 1940 I was 12 and lived in Moston on Manchester's north side, in a typical two up two down terraced house. This was situated at the end of the terrace and my back bedroom had an open view towards Newton Heath. In between lay on one side a large plot of open ground with a high fence marking the extent of the railway property and beyond which lay the large shunting yards. This open ground was our "croft" for playing. On the other side the ground fell away to the bottom of Moston Brook nd then rose up to the "sandhills" and Dean Lane railway station, so there was ample room for childish pursuits.

It soon became obvious that we would get our share of the Blitz, and as our houses had a small patch of land at the back with a high wall backing on to an entry, brick shelters were hastily built up against the wall and capped with a concrete roof. A hole was knocked in the entry wall about 18" square, enough for a person to crawl through and it was loosely blocked up with nine large blocks. The hole was chamfered inward so the blocks could only be pushed out one way from the inside, to prevent any bomb blast blowing them inside on the occupants. This was our escape hole. For people without the necessary space a large communal Anderson type shelter was built on the edge of the croft and covered with earth, so we lost a bit of our playing area.

When the night raids started we all thought we would get a good share of bombs, if only for the railway yards target. But also up the road about 2 miles was the large Avro aircraft factory and we were in the middle. So we went to the shelter when the sirens went and I climbed onto the top bunk with my face staring at the concrete ceiling about 12 inches above me. It was extremely claustrophobic and with the drone of the bombers I didn't like at all. Actually we used to get advance notice before the sirens went because what lights there were in the shunting yeards all used to go off beforehand so the railway must have got some kind of advance notice of a raid.

After a few nights of this caper, my parents decided to take our chances in the house. The stairs were situated against the gable wall and rose directly from the living room, providing a sloping shelter underneath. The D.I.Y. method practised was to shove the living room table under the stairs and crawl under the table with the chairs backwards around it. Except for a direct hit, this was considered a suitable alternative to the shelter.

As it turned out we didn't get many bombs around us. This was probably due to the presence of four huge anti-aircraft guns, of 4" calibre I think, installed on Broadhurst Fields about half a mile away, complete with searchlight battery. A bit more of a favourite playground lost, but as youngsters we were completely enthralled at the sight of them, and it was very comforting during a raid to hear the deafening crump of the big guns. A favourite occupation the following mornings was scouring the streets and croft for shrapnel. Most we found were matchbox size, but on one occasion I found the top prize - a huge piece of shrapnel with very jagged edges, and about 12" long complete with rifling marks. It was the side of an ack ack shell and brought home the dangers of being outside during a raid.

At this time I had recently started at a secondary school, which involved travelling and changing trams through town. I soon found out where the bombs were falling as I walked through the centre past all the rubble. One particular thing sticks in my mind. The tram used to pass the front of S & J Watts Ltd which had a brass nameplate about six feet long on the front wall. Each morning the cleaning lady used to polish it and it looked magnificent. One morning the plate had suffered a large triangular gouge in it, probably caused by a flying brick during the raid, but the lady still came out to polish it gouge and all which was very heartening. I don't remember ever having to miss school."

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