大象传媒

i am a pupil from Heaton Manor Comprehensive School, Newcastle Upon-Tyne, entering Geana Trotter's story onto the website, and they fully understand the website terms and conditions of use.

I was 10 years old when the war started. I was not evacuated, as I would not leave my mam and dad. When the war was declared I was in the house, I heard it over the radio. When the war started and we were getting bombed me and my family would go to the 鈥淐ulvert鈥� when the air raids were on. We had our own bunk beds with our own numbers on and we slept there until the next morning, we would usually have to go there every night. When we were in the air raid shelter it shook as the goods station was bombed. It was very frightening. The next day I was walking into town with my Gran to meet my Mum and when we were walking past what used to be the goods station, it was now just a pile of rubble, there was butter and sugar etc. stuck all over nearby buildings.
We had very poor rations compared to what we use nowadays; from what I can remember we used to get 2oz sugar a week per person, 2oz butter a week per person and 1 egg per person a week and that had to last you until the next set of rations were due. During the war you could not really get fruit I think you could only get apple and oranges and even then there were not very many of them until after the war had finished. Merchant ships used to carry the food from America. Unfortunately a lot of them were torpedoed before even reaching England, so instead of a full convoy arriving only half arrived. Because of the rations a lot of people started to grow their own food. This was given the nickname 鈥淒ig for Victory鈥�! We also had a clothing rationing book. This contained about 100 coupons to buy our clothes with.
When Guilford Place was blown up by 鈥渓and mines鈥� (which came down attached to parachutes) it was one of the most horrific explosions I can remember and what made it worse was the fact it was a very well populated area so there were a lot of people there at the time. The next day the trees were covered in people arms, legs and clothing etc. it was a terrible site. I also remember when the Apollo Cinema was bombed, but fortunately the show had just finished so luckily there was no one there so nobody was killed.
My Dad was in the Territorial Army, which meant he had to go away before the war started. He went across to France and was unfortunately caught up in the Dunkirk battle. During the battle he was shot in the hand and was deafened by the blast of a gun. Fortunately, he managed to get back home on a small craft, which came from the South of England. His injuries meant he was invalided out of the army a few months later. We were all so worried until the telegram came, the 20th December 1939, telling us he was safe, well and in England. Even until this very day we still do not know what happened in the battle in Dunkirk as my dad found it to hard to even talk about.
The day war ended was the best thing that happened to us in six years! I was in the house with my Gran and my baby brother when we heard it on the radio. Again we walked into town to meet my Mum from work and everyone was so glad it was finally over they were all shouting with joy to other people across the streets!

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