大象传媒

Carol Thompson was 9 when World War 2 started and she lived in a house in Bradford. She lived with her Mum, Dad and her 4 sisters. Two of her sisters were younger than her so they got evacuated but she didn't really understand why they had to go and not her.

When she was told about the War, her parents were both crying, she didn't really understand why they were crying but then her sister started to cry and she became worried. After they told them about the War, they both had to go to the bottom of the garden and help their Father build the Anderson shelter. She said, "It was very tiring digging and carrying the metal around".

She remembered the first night in the Anderson shelter, she heard the loud screeching noise that woke her up in the middle of the night. Her mother, Alice, rushed in, picked her up and ran out to the garden, saying that the Germans were coming!! She said it was quite exciting the first night because she didn't really understand but when she had to do it over and over again, it got quite worrying. When she heard the sirens go off she wondered if she would survive the night.

There wasn't much choice of food in the War and she got sick of always eating the same food over and over again. In 1940, eggs, butter, sugar, meat, tea, jam, biscuits, cheese and milk started to get rationed but she can only remember, in particular, that 12 eggs had to last you a week.

For fun, her older sister and she went onto the street and played with the other children, they sang songs, danced and played with skipping ropes.

When the War ended, her two younger sisters came back and she jumped for joy because then she know everything was going to be alright. She celebrated by having a big street party with singing and dancing and they all put Hitler's head on a stick and hoped that there would never be another war again.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.