大象传媒

Many people have exciting tales to tell of their experiences during the Second World War but I wonder - is there a silent majority who don't?

I was living with my family in my home town of Birmingham during the war and my main memory of the war is how we just got on with life. Perhaps it was becasue I was in my late teens when the war started, or because I'd spent a lot of my early teens in an isolation hospital with TB where I was not allowed visitors and was put outside in the cold and snow for 'fresh air', but as far as I am concerned, our lives weren't seriously affected by the war.

It probably helped that none of my brothers, father or husband had to serve in the forces during the war. They were in reserve occupations working in factories. Admittedly my brothers worked in an ammunition factory as had my father. In fact the estate was built for workers for the factory before the war. The road in which I lived was named after a type of gun - Tranter.

The only casualty of the the war in our family was the budgie of my sister (who was a volunteer in the fire brigade). A bomb was dropped near my sister's house and the blast broke the windows and caused the cage door to somehow come open. The bird flew out and was never seen again.

Perhaps its because when you are young you don't worry about death. I remember being at the pictures when the air-raid warning went and we all had to gather under the theatre balcony. To this day I don't know why they thought we would be safer under the balcony. Eventually I got tired of this and made my way home with the bombs still dropping. On the way I was acosted by two frisky RAF men on leave and I was more frightened by thir drunken advances than the bombs.

My husband,(we lived with my parents), wasn't too worried about the war either. He was in the Dad's Army and I think I can remember him bringing his rifle and bayonet home with him after meetings. One night he was out and the sirens sounded. The family and I went outside to the air-raid shelter. Time passed and he had not returned. Had something happened to him or was he sheltering somewhere? Eventually the all-clear sounded and we went back into the house. There was my husband fast asleep in bed. He'd only come home and gone straight to bed without coming into the shelter even to say he was OK.

Yes there was rationing and there were queues but we never had to go without. We usually managed to get whatever we needed without resorting to any black market. Of course, in those days we already had an allotment and were used to make do and mend with clothes and household items.

I think it has been said that one of the reasons we were not beaten in the war was our resiience. I suspect the vast majority of people got on with their lives and were very thankful if nothing terrible happened to them to make them remember the war.

(Account written in 1999 when daughter was a member of a creative writing group.)

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