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A CHILD’S EYE VIEW OF THE WAR — CATAPULTS, SHEPHERDS PIE, AND A LIFETIME’S RESPECT FOR RAISINS!

This story was submitted by Jo Taylor on behalf of JOHN POLLENDINE and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Catapults
There was a tremendous and vital sense of unity and urgency in the country. Patriotism was at an all time high. This sense was picked up by the children. There was also a lot of propaganda; this, I guess, was very essential, particularly in the terrible dark days of 1940 to1943.

As a child of about ten, we were all disappointed when the storm troopers didn’t make an all out assault on our school, blow it to pieces, and shoot all the teachers!

Being very patriotic, full of zeal and brave beyond belief, I put new elastic on my catapult, collected a stock of appropriate ammunition [pebbles] and vowed to protect my then current girl friend to the last drop of her blood. I wasn’t stupid enough to endanger my own.

Day to Day.
My father and two brothers worked long hours. After work, they had to attend the Home Guard several times a week. Also, military training on many week ends. School children also did their bit as well, and an important bit too. ‘Dig for Victory,’ that’s what the posters said, and so we did. We dug and planted vegetables in the large school gardens. The verges on the sides of many roads were dug up and vegetables were grown there too. My father had a large allotment and I willingly worked along side of him as well.

In those terrible first three years of the war, British, Canadian and American shipping suffered horrendous losses due mainly to highly efficient U boat and to a lesser degree Luftwaffer activity (German air force). School children were kept up to date at school in a lesson called current events. Of course, there was the radio, newspapers and (when I could afford it) the Pathe news at the cinema.

A few words about radios in those days: they were powered by two accumulators (cells that fitted into the back of the radio). They had handles and they seemed to weigh a ton. When they wanted recharging, it was my job to take them to the electric shop and bring two fully charged ones back. The shop was a good half a mile away.
I was convinced that when I grew up, the backs of my hands would be dragging on the floor due to carrying those accumulators.

Shepherds Pie and Raisins!
Along with everyone else, we had seen the barrage balloons go up over Sheffield. The blackout started; food rationing also started immediately. How on earth our mothers managed on the meagre amount of food allowed each person is almost beyond belief. Two ounce of everything per person, that was all. There were five people in our family; that meant only ten ounces of margarine etc. to last one week for the whole family. Women did marvels with vegetables and anything they could lay their hands on that could be made into a meal. They were, and still are, the unsung hero/heroines of both world wars.

I earned my pocket money. Kids did in those days. We never expected to get anything for nothing. My duties at home included black-leading the kitchen stove on Saturday morning, donkey stoning the front and back steps and, going to the Coop for the weeks shopping. My mother’s (may God bless her) divi number was 3977. On top of this I ran errands all the week. For this I received the sum of two pence If I wanted anymore, I had to earn it by doing jobs for other people.

We had school meals. I was convinced that the only food in the world was Shepherds Pie. We ate tons of it over the years. There were times when I thought that it was made out of old shepherds with a liberal amount of sheep dip added.

Just now and again, my father and brothers would bring home a food parcel from where they worked. It was a little extra that the Government allowed industrial workers. More often than not, it was water biscuits, totally tasteless and as hard as rock.

One day one of them brought home a large tin. In it was American Spam. It was wonderful. We had never tasted anything like it for years. I was convinced that this is what Manna was like that the Israelites ate in their wanderings in the wilderness.
No wonder it took them forty years; every morning, they sat on their backsides scoffing Spam instead of getting a move on.

My mother would make two Xmas puddings in August, and hang them in the pantry until they were needed. After awhile they were like two little cannon balls and just as hard. One August, I stole a few raisins. Ye Gods, she knew! She must have counted every one! I was in the doghouse…I was a budding Al Capone…a heartless Jack Delenger...Was I a bad ‘un! NO COMICS, NO TWOPENNY RUSH FOR TWO WEEKS! I would never survive it. Captain Bligh couldn’t have been as harsh.

To this day, when I have a scone or a teacake, I cut them open and remove all the raisins. No way am I going to risk going through that lot again!

Air Raids and Blackouts.
Very often while in school, the air raid sirens would wail out. That is a sound that I will never ever forget. The teachers were very good. We formed up in twos, marched smartly to the air raid shelters in good order. The teachers were very good and calm. They set the children an excellent example.

Everywhere that we went we had to take our gas mask. It was in a very strong cardboard box and to this very day, I hate carrying anything slung over my shoulder.

Very often in winter, we looked forward to a full moon and clear skies. Then we could at least see where we were walking. It made it much easier for enemy bombers to find their targets, but at least, we weren’t walking into each other and into lamp posts. The blackout was absolute.

The End of War.
The war seemed to go on forever. Every one prayed for peace. There were national days of prayer and quite probably they did some good. Five years of war is a very long time. Going back in history, imagine the Hundred Years War.

Well peace did come at last in May 1945. What a vast sense of relief, it was like an enormous weight had been lifted off every one’s back. Why people look back in nostalgia to those days, I cannot understand. There were of course good times, but mostly it seemed very dull and grey. What did stand out, and has never happened again, was the unity, the pulling together, and the sense of purpose that gripped the country.

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