大象传媒

Submitted by Stafford Library on behalf of John Dyche.

My first memory of World War II was in 1939 when I was just 6 years old. I recall playing in the garden at our family home in Rickerscote Avenue, Stafford when the milkman told my mum we were at war with Germany. I was frightened and wondered what was going to happen.

I remember:

My parents having ration books for food and clothes;
Taking a gas mask in a cardboard box to school every day;
Anderson Shelters being put into some gardens (some houses had steel type boxes which you could climb inside). We had a communal shelter at the end of Rickerscote Avenue;
Front and back gardens were dug up and vegetables were planted;
Most people kept chickens and rabbits for extra eggs and meat;
My dad made blackouts for the downstairs windows with chicken wire, lathes and roofing felt. If we wanted to go upstairs at night we had to feel our way in the darkness;
Children were evacuated from Ramsgate and Margate to families in Stafford;
New council houses were being built in Silkmore Lane but building ceased for the duration of the war and the incomplete houses stood at just 4 feet tall during this period;
Some American soldiers took over Silkmore Garage. I recall the big lorries and jeeps. Me and my friends went begging to them for sweets;
A factory called British Re-inforced Concrete (BRC) was further down Silkmore Lane. Part of BRC was taken over by a company called Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) which made things for the war. The boss of this firm Mr. Mason came to live at our home;
I went to school at St. Leonard's which was about a mile away from my home. Some of us pupils collected magazines for the forces. If we collected 144 or more we got a certificate and a letter from Lady Churchill;
The factory opposite our school was called English Electric Company (EECO)which made tanks for the war. Some were tested on Cannock Chase. I recall seeing them en route and their tracks tearing up the road;
In May 1940 a German plane managed to get through and dropped two bombs on the EECO. Fortunately they did not go off. My dad said the plane went over our house and he could have hit it with a gun. Me and my friends went round on our bikes to the factory and witnessedthe black marks down the side of the building where the plane struck;
Metal was in very short supply and so fences made with metal railings were cut out for recycling. Even today some older houses in Stafford have short stubs of metal evident from this activity during the war;
Wolverhampton Road was one of the main roads out of Stafford. I recall large concrete bollards and sand bags being placed at the side of the road ready to be used as a road block in the event of an invasion.

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