大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Deena Campbell from WM CSV Actiondesk on behalf of Arthur Musson and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Musson fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

I am recording my war time memories not from my experiences in the armed forces or emergency services but from my work in industry and on the home front. My name is Arthur Musson and I was 19 years old in 1939 and lived in Lea Village Yardley. My girlfriend who later became my wife was Mary Trickett, she was 17 and lived in Forsbrooke Road Small heath. Although we lived in Birmingham which was the second most bombed city in the country with 2,241 people killed, we were fortunate to have escaped the worst of the raids.

The Beginning 1939

My first memory associated with the war was on Saturday 2nd September 1939 the day before war was declared. I had been to the Capitol Cinema in Alum Rock with my girlfriend Mary. We had gone to the cinema in daylight but when we left there was intense darkness, all street lights were out, and blackout curtains were drawn in all of the houses, no shop lights and headlamp masks fitted to all cars buses and trams. There were no lights inside public transport vehicles. It was the first night of the blackout, most of which would continue for nearly six years. These days it is almost impossible to experience this sort of darkness due to light pollution even when outside towns.

I was working at the M.E.M Co. Ltd Reddings Lane Tyseley at this time and was taking my St John鈥檚 Ambulance examination in their canteen on Sunday morning on 3rd September. A radio had been installed there and it was from here that we heard Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announce that from 11am that day we were at war with Germany.

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