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This story has been submitted to the People’s War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Alan Belsher and has been added to the site with his permission…

I was ten when the war started and a cub scout. On this particular night I was on my way home along with my friend George Cooper, past the Avro Aircraft Factory Yeadon. The bombs were dropping and we could see Bradford burning on the horizon. All of a sudden George nearly passed out; he must have been in shock.

I managed to get him home and explained to his mum what had happened then I set off home on my own. The sirens had gone and there was no one about in the streets. It took me about an hour and a half to get home. No body appeared to be in and then at last my sister opened the front door. Everyone was under the table, mum was absolutely terrified, she thought a German plane might land and the Germans come knocking at the door. We used to listen to Lord Haw Haw on the radio and he said that they were after the Avro Works, so no wonder mum was scared., sshe worked in the office there.. They did drop three bombs nearby though and two or three people were killed.

Next door to us lived a lady called Mrs. Wright, whose husband was a Captain on a Fyffes banana boat, so she always seemed to have plenty of fruit. We had an air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden and Mrs. Wright would share our shelter with us. She always brought fruit with her, so I used to hope and pray there would be an air raid so that I could get some.

I started work at 14 where my father was working at a firm that supplied tanks to London and Liverpool or wherever they was bombing going on. We also fitted tanks to the back of American vehicles that were going out East, the tanks were to be filled with sand to give the vehicles traction.

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