大象传媒

I'm a pupil from Heaton Manor School, Newcastle Upon-Tyne, entering Elenor Crawford's storey onto the website, and they fully understand the website terms and contditions of use.

This storey was written on behalf of Eleanor Madge Crawford, my Grandmother.

I remember being 8 years old during the war. At the time I was living in Felling, Gateshead On-Tyne with my parents, Mr and Mrs. Bell. My farther did not serve as he had already fought during World War 1. My older brother, Frank, and a younger sister, Betty lived with me too. I had two older sisters, Winnie and Florence, who were serving. One serving the ATS and the other in the WAAF.
Life during the war for me was harder, yet as I was so young I became accustomed to it. The blackouts were new to me though it did not bother me too much. People would get into serious trouble at any sign of light. There were happy times too such as Christmas. No one received a lot but I remember Christmas being a happy time. I can remember always carrying a gas mask, everywhere I went. I can remember the rationing. There was just enough food, but the food itself was worse. There was dark bread and dry milk, which replaced our usual food. At the bottom of the garden we had an air raid shelter. This was my most frightening experience. We could spend hours or whole nights staying in the bomb, shelter. It was frightening not knowing what was happening, whether or not the bombs were still coming, where they were going to land, nothing. The bombs would whistle, making a terrible, scary sound as they came down. The school had a rule that if there was an air raid after midnight, school was cancelled the next day.
My most vivid memory of the bombs dropping was once when there was not enough time to make it to the shelter. My mother grabbed us, shouting get under the table. We were all cowering, saying or prayers. I was afraid the bomb would land on our house. The next day we found the bomb had hit the school field. There was a huge crater in the middle. I can still recall the smells of burning, as the rock was still hot after the blast. People were searching, finding shrapnel everywhere. One of the biggest bombs hit Sunderland road, I remember finding out that all the occupants on that street were killed.
The most horrific images that I saw during the war were of the concentration camps. I remember having many nightmares, imagining terrible things happening if Hitler came into the United Kingdom. However the media was very important and did bring good news. We listened to the radio, which was good at keeping us informed over the war and news. Winston Churchill said very powerful speeches that inspired me. Words that lightened my spirits. I can remember hearing
鈥淲e will fight on the land, and we鈥檒l fight in the air, we鈥檒l fight in the seas, the hills, the dales, and we鈥檒l never ever surrender!鈥�
I have always thought that war is a bad thing. I believe it is pointless and does not prove anything. A friend recently said to me,
鈥淚t takes old men to create wars, but young men to fight them, and not all of them come back!鈥� War is only the result of hatred, jealousy and greed. The only result of a war is making the world more afraid of the future. I would love wars to end, for people to put aside their hatred and greed for power; unfortunately I doubt this will happen.

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