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I was a girl of ten years old when the war began. When the sirens went off we had to come out of school and try to get home. It was too far to where we lived in Hugglescote near Coalville, Leicestershire to make it in the time they gave us, so we had to go with one of our school friends who lived nearer, then go back when the ‘All Clear’ went. We had gas mask drill at school and had to take them everywhere we went.

Three bombs were dropped close to us, they didn’t explode but had to be defused. One at Coalville one at Donnington - Le — Heath and a land mine at Ravenstone that landed in a farmers muddy field. They were all close to where we lived, around five to ten miles away, so I guess we were pretty lucky.

We made a shelter under our stairs just for my sister Marion and I. We came down from bed when the sirens went and slept in there while the raids were on. The night they bombed Coventry, from the front of our house you could look straight across at the sky that was just a red glow.

My Auntie came to stay with us from Brighton and Hove, she came out of the bombing there, as she thought, but walked into it again staying with us. She was very aware of the German planes coming over from France and one night she told my Mother to take us downstairs to the shelter because she had heard the Doodle Bugs coming over. The bombs started dropping and I started to scream out loud. There were some cakes on the shelf in our shelter under the stairs because it was also our pantry. My Auntie took one of the cakes and pushed it into to my mouth to shut me up!! She then went outside to see what was going on, wearing only her dressing gown and nightcap. She had to wear a nightcap because she had lost all her hair after three nervous breakdowns. The next day some of the neighbours across the road told my Mother they thought the Germans had left something behind…..my Auntie did look a bit strange with no hair and wearing a night cap!! We did have a laugh.

I remember we had a lot of air raids for the next few years and all our windows were blacked out. When the war ended we had a holiday from school and there were many ‘Street Parties’ of joy to celebrate the ending of the war.

'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Diane Marsh (nee Clarke) of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Beryl Clarke and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully undrstands the site's term and conditions.'

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