大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jabulani Chwaula from WM CSV Action Desk on behalf of William Bills Samuels and has been added to the site with his permission. William Bill Samuels fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

I lived with my mum, dad and younger brother in Small Heath. My Farther was a soldier in WW1 and lost his left leg through gunshot wounds in the battle of the somme in July 1916.

My Father never talked about the war because it was too overwhelming, he was only 18.

I already had tainted views of the war after what happened to my father.

The 1940 bombing raids.

Overlooking the Birmingham Small Arms Co. Ltd (BSA) site, sirens went early in the evening.We could hear the sirens of approaching aircraft and explosions
and guns firing.

The BSA site was an obvious target. We didn鈥檛 always run to the shelter although we should have. We looked outside and saw the sky turning green due to the incendiary bombs, no more than a mile away.

One night we heard a fizzing noise at the front of the house and we realised it was the sound of bombs burning in our front garden.Some bombs had gone through some of our neighbours roofs.

We even picked some of them up because we weren鈥檛 sure what they were, plus some of them didn鈥檛 always go off.

We were so used to it that we weren鈥檛 scared anymore. The cylinders looked like silver fish lying on the garden.

I was 14 when the war started and 19 or 20 when it ended.

I worked as an office boy at the BSA site until I was 18 then I volunteered to join HM forces Royal Air Force (RAF).In 1943 I was sent to the RAF air crew reception centre at St Johns Wood, London which was the Lords cricket ground.

As a Civilian Kid Airman of the kings, I got a blue uniform and I was part of the RAF.

I was in the RAF until 1944.I was released into the industry and worked in the coal mines under the Bevins Scheme until after the war ended in 1947.

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