大象传媒

We heard at midday on September 3rd that war was declared on Germany. That evening, the sirens went and I remember being terrified. I thought an army of German soldiers would walk up the lane where I lived and kill us. We soon got used to hearing the sirens and began to pick out the sound of German Bomber engines.

I remember my parents having to black out all windows, and the street lights went out. It was very dark in the winter months going and returning from work, which I started in 1940.

Because of food rationing, my parents saved cream from the top of the milk (no semi-skimmed in those days), and when a jar was half full, we took it in turns to shake the jar (with a lid on). Eventually we had some resemblance to butter to eke out the ration.

Fortunately my Father kept chickens, and though there were regulations telling him what he could do with the eggs, we never went short as we had the cracked ones.

Sometimes my Mother managed to get a Haslet, and we had that sliced, fried, as meat with the vegetables. My Father grew the vegetables and my Mother was good at improvising meals, so I and my Sisters and Brother never went hungry.

I do remember the great rejoicing when the was over.

"This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Michelle Moore of CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mrs M Allison and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions."

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.