大象传媒

My earliest memories of my childhood was living in a Back-to-Back house in Deritend Birmingham with my Mother and elder sister and brother. It was a typical working class area with houses mixed with factories and the usual corner shop. I wont go into all the details of how hard life was living within these very cramped and slum type dwellings, but I will tell you that during the war years it seemed that whenever there was an air raid we were always very close to where the danger seemed to be. This was probably because we lived very close to major manufacturing, and railway services. We had an Anderson shelter which was built in the quadrangle at the back of our houses, or as we would say in those days "Up the back yard." Unfortunately we were unable to use this shelter as no sooner than it was built it used to fill with water that seeped in from the ground around. Our main shelter was inside a local business called Bridgwater's who used to make wooden packing cases and munition boxes etc: Well one night whilst spending some time in the shelter during a major raid over Birmingham listening to the incendaries, and bombs, and the droning of the planes overhead and the cannon firing back from"Tricroft's"just across the road from the shelter. We suddenly heard the loudest explosion which frightened everyone except the kids some of course were still asleep and some who were probably so scared that they were strangely quiet not moving from their parents sides. Then in came the Air Raid Police (A.R.P)and told us that everyone had to evacuate the shelter as a bomb had landed in Heath Mill Lane and it has set fire to the back of Bridgwaters Tmber Yard. Now everyone started to panic because they had no idea where to go for safety. The A.R.P told us that we had to make our way to the Post Office shelter in the High Street of Deritend, everyone looked amazed and some were reluctant to make such a journey. This was understandable especially as the raid was still going on overhead and the dangers of getting killed were very real. Well, finally the danger of the fire took over and everyone had to make the dash towards the new shelter which was quite a dash I can tell you, I remember holding my mom's hand so tight it hurt, and running like the devil himself was after me, my little legs weren't long enough to keep pace with my mom, and at time it seemed like I was flying. I remember the women screaming everytime there was an explosion of any sort, which seemed to sound worse because the journey to the new shelter meant that we had to run practically the whole length of Lower Trinity St under railway arches into, and along Adderly St towards High St which again was covered with railway arches,and they echo the noise of the bombs and cannon bursts, to deafening bangs. The railway as previously stated being one of the target for enemy bombs. The bomb that caused all this panic was I understand a Landmine, and it destroyed practically the whole of Heath Mill Lane, from the railway bridge at Mill St upto Fazeley St. The bombed site afterwards was always known by all the local kids as the "Landmine," and later when the fire department built the most enormous open water tank on the site, well it became our favourite play ground. Never before had I experience such a frightening time, and hours later when the all clear sounded my mother stayed awhile in the shelter to let us kids get some sleep as her way of trying to calm our fears of that night, and other such nights that were sure to come.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.