大象传媒

'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Deb Roach of the CSV Action Desk with 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

Late in 1939 my father went to join the ARP as an Air Raid Warden and I went with him. I was sixteen at the time. I also wanted to join, but I was told I was too young. My father argued that they needed messengers in case of a breakdown in communications. I was taken on, and I found myself riding my bike at the first sign of an air riad there were plenty of bombs and land mines dropped on West Bromwich, but thankfully non in our sector, just the odd unexploded shell or fragments of shrapne.

All houses were supplied with an air raid shelter, either an Anderson Shelter that was erected in the garden by digging a hole big enough to erect the shelter in, then covering it with the soil taken out of the hole.
My father fitted a double bed in our shelter. Another type of air raid shelter was a table make of steel, that people could get under during a raid, but I think the safest place in the house was under the stairs.

More on Bill's war in following chapters

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