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This story has been submitted to the People’s War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Edith Kane and has been added to the site with her permission…

I was 19 when war started and living in Coventry and working at Morris’ Engine as an accounting machine operator.

I was also in the Fire Service part time, which meant I went out two or three nights a week to our depot, which was housed in a large school. We slept in bunks there and would be awakened when the alarms went off, we would then go and man the telephones, sometimes being awake all night and then having to go to work the following day, but you can do this when you’re young. I have to admit though I was terrified during the blitz.

On the nights I wasn’t working I would go under the stairs at home when the alarm sounded. When the aeroplanes came over you knew by the sound alone that they weren’t ours, you didn’t need to see them.

My father worked at Cortaulds in Coventry on nights and after one particular night of very heavy bombing he didn’t come home on time, I can remember that dreadful fear that he wasn’t going to come home at all. I set off on my bike to meet him and was so relieved when he was coming the other way. He told me what a terrifying night they had had and that Uncle Bill’s house had been bombed and almost demolished.

I married in 1943, my husband was an electrician and as he was in a reserved occupation he wasn’t called up. We saved clothing coupons and purchased the fabric for my dress in Leamington Spa. It was white satin embossed on one side and I had it made up with the plains side to the outside. The under-slip I used for a nightie on my honeymoon, as clothes were in such short supply; if you could use a garment for more than one purpose it was a good idea. We went to Torquay for our honeymoon and I remember sharing a taxi with some people who said they wouldn’t have got in it had they known we had just got married. You shared everything in those days and everyone helped one another, there was a great feeling of camaraderie. Later on I made my own daughter a dress from my wedding dress, so it was put to good use again.

I received a telegram of congratulations from both of my brothers who were unable to come to the wedding, one being in the Grenadier Guards 7th Army and the other a radio operator in the RAF where he was later to be awarded the DFC in acknowledgment of his bravery in all the missions he flew. It was wonderful that they both came home safely when the war ended.

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