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

I was living in Coventry during the war; I was 20 and V.A.D. nursing at Coventry Hospital.

Coventry was very heavily bombed during the war possibly because in the First World War there had been an ammunitions factory close by, which was no longer there, but that is possibly why we were bombed so badly.

The sirens went off most nights and we would try and sleep in the pantry or under the stairs.
I remember the night of the big blitz, which must have gone on for at least twelve hours; a bomb landed, but did not explode at the corner of our house. My brother was in the Home Guard and on duty that night; he woke us up and told us to get into the public shelter, which was nearby. The following morning when we came out our house had gone, well almost gone, it had been hit and most of it had just been blown to ruins. But you got on with life, everyone worked together and there was a great spirit of friendship.

I married in 1944; my husband was in the Royal Army Service Corp and overseas with the Desert Rats. I had a white wedding dress that I borrowed from my sister in law and one large bridesmaid and two small ones also in borrowed dresses. I had a two- tier wedding cake and everyone helped with the ingredients.

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