´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education’s reminiscence team on behalf of Leonard Miller and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

I was 10 when the war started and living on the Plumstead Estate in Norwich. I remember being in the Anderson Shelter in our garden. My Dad worked away from home, building hangars on the airfields, and me, my Mother and my brother used to go down the shelter every night. When Dad started locally and lived at home, we stopped going down the shelter and decided that if we were going to die we would rather all go together in the comfort of our home.

The nearest bomb that fell was 300 yards away on Warmesley Road. It hit a couple of houses and completely demolished them. It made quite a noise – a big bump, but it wasn’t until the next day after the all-clear that we knew what had happened.

My Dad was machine-gunned at Boulton and Paul’s where he worked. He was up on the roof when this plane came over, so he jumped onto a rope to get down to the ground quickly. He burnt his hands on the rope, but got away from the bullets which were being sprayed all around him.

I went to Wellesley Avenue School. Whenever the siren went we all marched down to the playing fields where there were shelters underground. The sirens went quite often, so we would often march over, and then when the all-clear went march back again. I had to carry my gas mask wherever I went.

When I got older I went to the Crome School on Telegraph Lane. I remember the master being very patriotic. If we did anything wrong he would give us 100 lines, but he would let us off those lines for a Penny towards the War Effort!

When I was about 14 I joined the Air Training Corps. We used to parade every week and also went to airfields to see the Lancaster Bombers. I had a ride in one once. They put me in the rear turret surrounded by guns and ammunition. It was quite an experience for a young boy.

We never had a lot of food but Mother always managed to do something. Because Dad worked on the airfields he was friendly with a lot of airmen and they used to come to our house. On one occasion they brought us a huge tub of chocolate ice cream as a treat. We kept it in cold water in the sink to stop it melting as we hadn’t got a fridge. I was sick of chocolate ice cream by the time we finished it!

There were certain zones of the country which you weren’t allowed to travel to, but one school holiday we decided to try to get to Cromer. We caught the bus and when we got half way along the driver said we might be stopped and turned back by the army, but we weren’t. In Cromer there was all barbed wire and you couldn’t get to the beach, but we had a good day out. On the whole you didn’t travel during the war because you just couldn’t get anywhere.

Buses all had darkened lights with masks on the headlights. All you could see of the light was a cross shining through. They had a lot of women drivers and the conductors were all women. We had to rely on the women to do a lot of jobs because the men were all in the Forces. Although war is not a good thing, it was good for the women because it showed what they could do. Before then they had not been allowed to try.

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