大象传媒

I was six when the war started. I remember walking to school in Middlesbrough with my gas mask in its little cardboard box on a string hung over my shoulder. If the siren went during classes we all walked in a neat crocodile, about a quarter of a mile to the secondary school, where we sat in the cellars until the all clear sounded. Air raids were popular, especially during maths.

I remember being woken up in the night and running down the garden to our Anderson Shelter, and listening to the pitter-patter of shrapnel from anti aircraft shells which had burst overhead. Next day we collected shrapnel and tried to get a piece big enough to sell or trade at school.

There was a dog, a few houses away from us, whose ears were far better than the official air raid warnings. If he started barking we would go to the shelter and sure enough, five minutes later, the siren would sound.

As we got used to the air raids we would sleep through them. A warm bed was better than a cold damp shelter. However, a neighbour awoke one morning to find the nose cone of an anti aircraft shell sticking through the ceiling directly above his head. He got up rather quickly.

Later, air raids became less and my main memories are of seeing our own aircraft limping back in the early mornings. Once a four engine bomber, probably a Halifax, came over our house very low, heading for Thornaby airfield. The fuselage was like a pepper pot, full of holes. He was flying on one and a half engines, visibly sagging in the air. Three red flares went up from the airfield, he disappeared below the roofs of the houses, there was no big cloud of smoke, so we think he got her down safely.

On VE Day we had a street party with spam sandwiches. We seemed to have spam with everything!

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