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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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My war in Hockley

by WMCSVActionDesk

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Contributed by听
WMCSVActionDesk
People in story:听
Ada and Jean Mullard
Location of story:听
Hockley, Birmingham
Article ID:听
A5291958
Contributed on:听
24 August 2005

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Ben Russell from CSV Action Desk on behalf of Ada and Jean Mullard and has been added to the site with their permission. Ada and Jean Mullard fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was seven when the war started and lived in Hockley by the Jewellery Quarter where they stored horses. I was also close to the railway and lots of small engineering factories. I wouldn鈥檛 be evacuated as my mother was deaf and as I was an only child she needed me. My mom worked as a jeweller and sometimes I just knew there would be a raid so id go and meet her from work. There was a long bridge on the way and if I didn鈥檛 get there quick enough a police man would look after her until the all clear. My father died 6 weeks before the war began so mom had to work from 7.30am till 6.00pm because we needed the money.

When there was a raid we used to sit on the celler steps, I don鈥檛 know why we didn鈥檛 go down into the celler. Mom used to sit with her arm around me and my head in her lap. Because she couldn鈥檛 hear the all clear and if it was dark she couldn鈥檛 read my lips I used to give her hand two squeezes. The longest raid was 13 hours in an ARP shelter. We had a direct hit and had to be dug out.

We sat down and let the ARP men clean us up and then the police came and started asking us questions. They asked mom what the explosion had felt like and she told them it was like being hit on the back of the neck with a cloths brush. I was afraid they would think she was a little strange in the head! The police then asked the ARP man if he had a gun. They asked him if he would go and shoot the badly injured horses. I tried not to listen but I think they said shoot them in the head.

When we went back to our house we weren鈥檛 allowed inside as there was no kitchen. There was nothing but a pile of rubble and my cat Blackie! A couple of days later the woman who looked after me when mom went to work saw us in the street and fainted, she thought we were dead.

While our house was being repaired we went to the church hall on Spring Hill so people could pick us and take us in. One woman said she wanted mom but not me and a police man behind us said you have to take them both but she didn鈥檛. The lady who chose us was very cruel, she used to twist my ear and give me Chinese burns on my arms, very painful! I didn鈥檛 tell mom though as I thought she had enough to go through.

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