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I was about 12 years old and still at school.
My father told us when war was declared.
He was called up to make munitions at the factory where he was already working.
When the sirens went we would have to go into the brick shelters and sometimes stay there all day.
The bombs went off nearby and people were killed, so we did experience near misses.
We had an Anderson Shelter and my mum and dad made us go there.
There was Sally, Betty, Douglas, Harry and Tom.
We had the biggest shelter as we had the largest family.
Dad had to do 12 hour shifts — day and night.

Of a night time the sirens would go off every night.
My mum and dad would stay in to make sure all of us children were in the shelter.
As our shelter was the biggest, dad had lots of digging to do.
It was metal and we had to have 16 pieces of corrugated metal to make it.
There was just one entrance so you had to climb in.
The shelter was musty as you had to shut the entrance when everyone was in and there was no fresh air.

It was great when the war finished and we didn't need the blackouts.
It was a terrible expense having to cover all of the windows. You had to find something like blankets to put at all the windows when the lights went on.

There was a bomb in our street. Everything would disappear — the families would be dead.

When the end of the war came everyone went mad.
We had parties in the street.
Every street made their own party.
We all contributed with the rationing we could get hold of.
We hung onto out rations when we knew it was coming to an end.

This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Lisa Reeves of CSV Action Desk Leicester on behalf of Ellen McTear and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions

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