大象传媒

I was born on 7th December 1926 at Ladywood near Droitwich. So when war was declared on 9th September 1939, I was nearly 13 years old and still at school. I remember my parents being very sad and upset on this day as my father was a soldier in the First World War and they were thinking of the sadness of war.

I remember being fitted out with gas masks which we had to carry at all times. We used to have air raid practice at school where we all had to run and get our coats and gas masks and go along a drive at the bottom of the playground to a tunnel under a canal which was to the air raid shelter.

At the age of 14 I left school. At the same time food rationing began and a week鈥檚 ration for one person was 2ozs tea leaves, 8ozs sugar, 4ozs jam, 2ozs lard, 2ozs butter, 2ozs margarine, 4ozs cheese, 4ozs bacon, 12ozs meat, 1 egg and 3ozs sweets. We were all issued with a ration book with coupons in. The shopkeepers took the coupons out as the food was purchased and we were not allowed to have anything extra so, if you had used something all up before the end of the week, you had to go without until you could use the next coupon. In July 1941 clothing was also rationed. We were all given a book with coupons in to last 12 months so we did not have many clothes or shoes.

Right from the beginning of the war there had to be a blackout at night. This meant that no light could be seen from the outside, all windows had to have blackout curtains and lights on cars and cycles were half blacked so everywhere was very dark and eerie, especially in the country where I lived. There was a man whose job was a Blackout Warden; he came around at night to check that he could not see light from the houses. If he could, he used to knock on the door and tell you to cover it up. You could get into trouble if you did not. The idea of the blackout was so that the enemy planes could not see lights and show them the places to drop their bombs, but they did manage to drop them on the big cities.

Many times I stood on the canal bridge by my house and I could see Birmingham and Coventry being bombed. The sky was lit up by the fires, it was quite frightening. There used to be a warning noise go off if the enemy planes were coming. When we heard the siren we ran and hid under the stairs and just prayed the bombers did not come our way. The sirens also sounded when it was all clear and safe to go out.

There was a bomb dropped in a field about 1 mile away from my home and another about 3 miles away but, fortunately, no real damage done and nobody hurt. I think they were meant to drop on the ammunition factory at Blackpole.

Most of the people living in the village were asked to take in evacuees from London; these were people who were suffering from the air raids which took place most nights in London killing and injuring people and also destroying their homes. Some evacuees had lost everything in the raids. My parents took in two families of three people. Our sitting room was made into a bedroom and, looking back now, we lived in very overcrowded conditions for about 4 years. I remember sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

About 1 mile from my home there was a searchlight camp. When the enemy planes were coming over we could hear the droning noise of the aeroplanes. The searchlights would go on and the sky would be lit up and it would show where the planes were. The lights were so bright you could see to read a newspaper.

All the young men around us and many more we knew were called up to join the forces, either the Army, Navy or Air Force. Unfortunately some did not return home, they were killed in action fighting for our country and the freedom we have. Every year on Armistice day, 11th November, we remember them with 2 minutes silence at 11.00 a.m. This was the time that war was declared over.

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