大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Julia Shuvalova for GMR Actiondesk on behalf of Joseph Hodgson and has been added with his permission. The author is fully aware of the terms and conditions of the site.

We lived in Liverpool, 8 Dingle, Toxteth, near the Docks, in a typical working class 2up-2down. I remember the grown-ups crowding around a wireless set. The transmission was just about audible, as the battery was due for changing. Mr Chamberlain said that war had been declared on Germany, so to me that sounded like some great adventure. And in the next few months that seemed to come true.

The first few weeks into 1940 we used to stand in the street watching dog fights in the sky. There were communal air raid shelters, but then they built brick air raid shelters in the streets. There were three or four families to each section. We fitted them with any bit of carpets and furniture to make them as comfortable as possible.

Yes, this was my great adventure, until the air raids began to happen every night. Next morning somewhere had been bombed, a house, a shop or even a school.

That's when one of my brothers comes in the picture. He was twice my age. One night he was out on fire watch. It was rumoured that an incendiary bomb fell in the back yard of an old lady. There was a lack of either water or sand, so he urinated on the fire. Two days later in the local paper they wrote that a local man had taken the piss out of the Jerry!

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