大象传媒

3rd of September 1939, the Second World War was declared. England went to war with Germany. Even though the war had been expected for a long time it was still a shock when it did come and no one knew what to do.

This war was to eventually involve the whole world, it was going to involve every man, woman and child. Hitler aimed at the young, the not so young and the old. This most horrible war was to last 5 years 8 months and 4 days, killing 55 million men, women and children world wide.

When the war was first declared it was decided by the government to close all the schools and that all the children should be moved out of London and all the big cities and densely populated areas to a place of safety in the country. As there had never been any previous experience of a world war especially involving cities and towns and worst of all targeting civilians and this war was going to involve air-craft, high explosive bombs, incendiary bombs and poison-gas, dropped upon us from the sky, ( unlike the First World War which was fought on the Battle-Fields).

The schools helped to evacuate the children. We all had to meet at our own school to catch the bus which would take us to the railway station and away from London and our families. We had an address label tied to our coat in case we got lost. We were a sad and sorry looking bunch. Most of us were crying and some children were sobbing. We couldn鈥檛 understand what was happening to us. We had to take a case with a change of clothes inside and washing material, plus a bag of food to get us through that day, until we got to our billets and of course we had to carry the dreaded gas-mask with us.

Every man, woman and child was supplied with a gas-mask. They were the most horrible things, they were black rubber, ugly and smelly and they frightened the young children, who felt they were being suffocated in them. The little children hated them and tore them off their faces. Parents were terribly afraid for their children. Babies had to go right inside their gas-mask, but they wouldn鈥檛 stay in them they would just wriggle and squirm and get themselves out. I dread to think what would have happened if gas had been drooped on us.

After the first panic was over and most of the children were out of danger and the young men had been called into the fighting forces and the women were working in the ammunition factories. The older men, who had fought in WW1 and who were too old to fight in this WW2, formed what we know now as 鈥淒ads Army鈥�. Their jobs were to make lists of where things could be found, ( picks, shovels, cars, bikes.) also where people lived and how capable these people would be in an emergency. They did things like remove all the sign posts and make things difficult for any German soldiers who might invade our shores.

But at first, in the early days, the war seemed like a big joke as nothing much happened. The air-raid warning would sound followed shortly after by the all-clear. These nuisance raids went on for some time and people fell into a false sense of security. We were now calling it the phoney war.

The outcome of this was that a lot of the children came home again. Bill and I and all my cousins returned to London. We came home to a very different London. There was sticky criss-cross tape on all the shop windows and all the busses and trains. This tape was tp protect you from shattered glass if a bomb dropped nearby and you were caught in the blast.

Heavy regulation black-out curtains were at all the windows and ARP Wardens walked the dark streets at night looking for people who had not closed their curtains properly. If they were showing even a chink of light the warden would yell out 鈥� put that blooming light out鈥�. If you kept offending you paid a hefty fine and worse than that, the anger of your neighbours.

By now, surface air-raid shelters had been built all down one side of every street. These shelters were low, re-enforced brick buildings with no windows, they had two entrances, one at each end, and they had bunk beds, these were for the night time raids, you had to bring your own mattress and bed clothes with you every night and some matches and a candle as there were no lights.

These shelters were very sparse on comfort and were to prove freezing cold and very damp in winter and hot and smelly in summer. But we were going to be very glad to use them before this war was over. It was decided that out Nan would look after my brother Bill and I, because Mum was now working in the ammunition factory and earning some much needed cash. We had come back to London because we missed our Mum so much and we missed all the rest of the family.

This story was submitted to the Peoples war site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Rose McNamara - Wright, and has been added to the site with her permission.. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions鈥�.

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