´óÏó´«Ã½

This is my Aunt’s story I found the information about sharing war experiences at the Kew Flower Show alongside the exhibition of the wartime garden.

I have heard many of the human ordinary stories of the Blitz from my Grandmother Mother and my Aunt and thought it would be great if they could share some.I remember them second hand so they are a little changed by my memories. Like Granddad telling Grandma that they did not need the Anderson shelter she was determine to have, telling his family that the Germans planes would never be able to get to Manchester. He had been RAF ground staff during the first World War and he felt the planes could not fly that far. ..She wilfully went ahead with the shelter and Granddad was the first one in when the siren finally sounded!

This is my Aunt’s story including her introduction this happened in Stretford Manchester near Old Trafford.

The WW2 People’s war card is very interesting bringing back so many memories. The story I thought you may like to relate to the archive centre is the following experience of Joan and I .It adds humour during the terrifying experience of a blitz.

As teenagers, my sister and I experienced the sight of a shower of incendiary bombs descending through the roof of the cinema, fortunately on unoccupied seats. Rather than go to an air raid shelter we decided to risk running the 15 minutes to home not realising it was the first night of the Manchester Blitz.
Buildings on fire, bombs falling, we had to dodge and duck, into the gutter on several occasions—VERY concerned about laddering our precious silk stockings which were so hard to come by even with clothing coupons. Eventually we arrived home safely — shaken but thrilled - our stockings were still intact! Signed Beryl Williams

Maybe people never want to relate how fearful they were but I never heard my Mother or Aunt Mention fear. They always said they never worried about anything during the war! It was the old story they could die tomorrow why worry. They did however object to Churchill maybe because he made them face the truth. But they always thought of him as harbinger of doom and would never listen to him on the radio, never thought of him as being uplifting.

I just wondered if anyone else mentioned this, the common perception now is that he was the morale of the nation but wasn’t with the Williams sisters in Manchester!

Regards Ruth Moran

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