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I was 9 years old at the beginning of the war and remember that the large munitions factory at Radway Green, Crewe was a prime target for German bombers. Another prominent site was Crewe Marshalling Yard on the junction of the GWR. The locomotive works there built spitfires.
On one occasion a land mine dropped by parachute on the Pitts Hill district of Stoke-on-Trent, demolishing a row of garages. The local kids flocked to the site, hunting for souvenirs, especially mine casings. One piece had lettering on it — ‘Poole’s Foundry’. It was only part of a drainpipe!
At Hanley High School, which Reginald Mitchell the spitfire designer attended, there were three evacuees from London, two named Strasser and one named Hesse. All three were German Jews. They spoke reasonable English, although their parents did not.
On VJ Day I was one of thirty lads spending a month at a farming camp at Norton-in-Hales, Market Drayton, where we helped bring in the harvest. For this we received 9d an hour and had to pay for our keep as well! Our accommodation consisted of bell tents. On the big day there was a huge bonfire and several young ladies were in attendance.
According to local tradition, Stoke-on-Trent was never bombed because the bottle ovens spewed out so much smoke that the Germans thought it had already been bombed!

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