大象传媒

When I was 18 in 1939 there was talk of a coming war so the local councils began to dig air raid shelters in the parks and open spaces. These were underground and must have had metal roofs and then then earth and grass piled on top. Then they built some in the streets and parks that were oblong buildings with flat concrete roofs. Nothing inside. It was just somewhere to shelter in an air raid if you were out and planes came over during the day.

As my father had been in the trenches in France in the first World War, he and a friend dug an oblong hole in our back garden. He put corrugated iron sheets on top and then my mother cut up sacks and made little ones. These were filled with the earth and put on top. He did not fit anything to help us get down inside. I think we put a stool to step on and get down inside. Later when the war was declared the Govt supplied shelters. These had curved tops and made of corrugated iron. They were buried in the gardens with just the top curve above the ground and earth then piled thickly on top. There was a bench affair each side so you could lie down in there for a long time.

When the first stray bomb fell in our area, we heard a siren and got out of bed, grabbed some clothes and wento out in the garden to our hole. We couldn't hear anything except for one bump in the distance and didn't fancy getting down into our trench. We then realised that what we had heard was the All Clear and not the wailing of the Warning. The All Clear was one continual sound. Actually one lady was killed by that bomb. Bombs were small at the start of the war - 100 lbs and would damage a small area, maybe the one house.

Some people were later provided with indoor shelters but you needed a spare dwonstairs room for those. They were like a big oblong table made of metal with meh sides. When inside they protected you if your house was hit by a bomb and all the rubble came down.

Our neighbours had a shelter before we did and asked me to go over in an air raid. When the sirens sounded, I dressed in warm clothers and ran out and climbed over the brick garden wall to get inside the shelter. It wasn't very nice in the cold but it made you feel safer.

In London people went and slept in the Tube stations and in Bristol lots of people camped out at night in a disused tunnel in the Avon Gorge. It wasn't nice in Winter going into the shelters. We took blankets and when raids lasted all night, we took flasks of tea. You couldn't sleep hearing the planes and the bombs exploding somewhere, and the shrieking noise they made coming down.

When raids started we had to blackout all our windows so not a chink of light showed or the planes would know they were over a city. Some people had plywood panels they fitted over the glass. Others bought special blackout material and lined your own curtains with this but you had to be sure they didn't let any light show. The air raid wardens in the streets would come and tell you if it did. Car headlights also had to be covered and a small bit in the centre was left open so you culd just get about. Street lights also were covered and we all had small torches with No 8 batteries to help us see the edge of pavements when out at night.

Before the raids started, my friend and I used to go for a walk and look in the shop windows. These were covered with small peepholes so you could look in.

My Mother was lucky and managed to get a Paraffin oil lamp and we had to get candles, as when bombs exploded near they broke the pipes underground that gave us our light, gas and water. Also we had double Summer-time during the war. Instead of clocks going back or forward one hour, they went two.

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