´óÏó´«Ã½

Disclaimer: This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from CSV on behalf of Michael Balbes and has been added to the site with her permission. Michael Balbes fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was born in 1937, so by the time of the Blitz I was four and five years old. We lived on Hanson Street, near Great Portland Street and New Cavendish Street. My recollection of the Blitz was the dependence upon me of having to wake my parents up every time there was an air-raid warning; because my parents were deaf — born deaf, profoundly deaf. I had to wake them up on the air-raid siren and we hustled ourselves to a shelter, which I believe was Great Portland Street Station to sleep on the platforms. When the sirens came out for the all-clear the biggest recollection I had — and this is a child of four and five’s perspectives - was that as we emerged from the underground it looked like the whole of London was on fire. Because the incendiary bombs would land in rafters of people’s house, set the fire and then set several houses on fire. When you have such events in many blocks surrounding the whole of the West End where we lived, it looked like the whole of London was on fire. That there was no London anymore — that was from a child’s perspective. The sound of the V1s that came over and whined and when the whining or buzzing stopped you would know the bomb was on it’s way down you covered your ear. You never knew the bomb was coming down and maybe on you. You never knew when it was going to hit you.

A child of deaf adults feels very good about the situation of having to tell his parents of the approaching of V1s because he has tremendous power. In a normal family the parents have much power over the child and the child had very little control over any situation as it affects him. But a child of deaf parents, where they depend on him to speak and listen to air-raid sirens and things like that feels very powerful. So it was always a good feeling to be in that position. I was very frightened of the bombs and the noises. To this day, when there is a loud noise I get very startled — more than any normal person would.

When the air-raid sirens where, which was before the bombs came down, I would wake my parents up — we were always asleep and the bombs seemed to always come at night. They depended on met to wake them up and then off we’d go to the shelter. There were times when we couldn’t get a place in the shelter. So we would hide in the basement of the block of flats we lived in. A kind lady in the basement flat would let us hide in there. I didn’t have to let them know that a bomb had fallen. I didn’t have to let them when a bomb had fallen. Even as deaf people they knew because they of the vibration — when a bomb fell everything in the basement flat would shake. On one occasion appliances even ripped off the wall. The impact of a bomb nearby was pretty severe, so they always knew.

On VE Day the block party started late and it woke me up and I was in my pyjamas. My parents put shoes on me and rushed me out for the party. It was the first time I was ever allowed in the street in my pyjamas. And nobody since that or before that has ever let me out in my pyjamas! So that was a major event in my life!

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