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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Old Southgate

by Civic Centre, Bedford

Contributed by听
Civic Centre, Bedford
People in story:听
albeart neech
Location of story:听
southgate
Article ID:听
A2695962
Contributed on:听
03 June 2004

I was 6 when the war began. On a warm hot september day I was at the allotment with my dad when the air raid siren sounded. chaimberlin had just anounsed the decleration of war, but the alarm was false. this period was called the phony war. during the bliz, with my dad i wached thew attackes on the east end. dad was a fire wacher, but as a carpinter he used to go to help build the new airfeilds. He was away for long periods and my nan came to help my mum. my brother and i were waching the battle of britain and collecting shrapnell.
the councle bought anderson shelters round at the beggining of the war and dad built ours in a shallow trench in the back garden, but in the first raid a bomb fell in debowhand park close by and the blast demolished our anderson. when a raid came while we were at school, we had shelters in the school feilds; the school was called debowhand school, southgate. the shelters were dark and damp, the teachers had candles and torches. we were very glad to come out when the all clear sounded.
later in the war we had v1's and v2's. we were told if a v2 was coming we were to go to school or home, which ever was nearest. A v1 came down on houses close by and blew our roof off and the windows in. we had a big tarpalin on the roof for weeks. My brother, who was 6 years older went round to see what had happend. when he came back he told me that he had seen in one of the colapced houses a woman still in her bath, but with no head. it made him ill and me aswell. i can rember, always being frightend of thunder storms; my dad would say, "its alright albert, its only a raid" and i would be quite happy!

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V-1s and V-2s Category
Childhood and Evacuation Category
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