大象传媒

鈥淭his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anita Howard from Essex CSV Action Desk on behalf of Catherine Gravelle and has been added to the site with her permission. C.Gravelle fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

I was 6 years old when war broke out. I lived in Farley Hill, Luton and went to Tennyson Road Junior School. In the summer of 1939 I remember looking out of the classroom window to see workmen in the playground. They marked out the shape of a giant letter 鈥淓鈥� and began to dig. I was amazed to discover that they were digging out white chalk. These were to be our underground air raid shelters for the school.
When the raids started (and there were quite a few) the headmaster rang the hand bell and we hurried downstairs, across the playground, down the steps into the tunnel allocated to our class. There were 3 tunnels in the boy鈥檚 playground and three in the girl鈥檚. Along the side of the tunnel were backless benches and at the end of the tunnel hung a hessian curtain.
I never saw what was behind it but understood it was the emergency lavatory. We were not encouraged to use it and our rather fierce teacher positioned herself in front of the said curtain. I would have been too frightened to ask. Fortunately the need never arose.
We sang songs whilst we were down there 鈥� 鈥淩un Rabbit Run鈥�, 鈥淏less鈥橢m All鈥� and 鈥淩oll Out the Barrel鈥�. At home we only listened to classical music so at first I was unfamiliar with the words and felt very inadequate. The shelters were very cold so we were perished.
As the school hand bell was only used as an air raid warning, when it was time to go in from play, one of the top class monitors had to run out into the playground banging a dustbin lid with a stick, where upon the children formed lines and went into school. It was a wonderful feeling when it was my turn to do this and it was considered a great honour.
Some of the children told me about the deep under ground street shelters where they went at night during the heavy raids. It seemed that they had a good time down there.
Other families used the above ground brick shelters in the streets. Many had Anderson shelters or brick shelters in their gardens. We had a brick shelter built on to the back of our house. The French window was taken away from the sitting room and the shelter was built with very thick walls of white brick and a flat concrete roof. I used to climb up the side of it, onto the roof and jump onto the lawn below. It was great fun but my mother never knew!

When I was at Luton High School the shelters were some way from the school on the other side of the hockey pitch. When there was a warning we had to crouch underneath our desks. One of the mistresses would go out to the hockey pitch and if there was no sight or sound of enemy aircraft she would blow a bugle which was the signal to file out and run across the hockey field to the underground shelters. Strict silence was enforced and we were told to read from the school text book we had taken with us. The light was dim and anyone who spoke was given a 鈥渞eport鈥� which was a major 鈥渃rime!鈥�
Compared with other towns Luton didn鈥檛 suffer greatly from the bombing but the Vauxhall Motors, which made army vehicles, Comma Cars and Skefo Ball Bearing Co. were targets in the town.
Whilst the raids were on, particularly at night, we could tell from the hum of the engine whether it was 鈥渙urs鈥� or 鈥渢heirs鈥� or whether a load had been dropped or not. We heard the whistle and the following explosion. Two houses in Tennyson Road, next to the school gate were demolished and there were many others. .It was fascinating to see some of the remaining walls with pictures still hanging from them and the fluttering curtains in the shattered remaining windows. I remember a land mine falling on the bus station and a large area was devastated.
Towards the end of the war the V1s and V2s were dropped. We held our breath waiting for the engine to cut out and then the relief when we heard the bang because we knew it was elsewhere
Before the war started we were issued with gas masks at Junior School. This caused much amusement and comment when an infant boy had to have a large adult sized mask. We had to carry our gas masks at all times so the cardboard boxes became very battered. We could buy robust replacement cases to put them in. Mine was a grey tin cylinder. We carried them over our shoulder with a strap.
We had evacuees from the East End of London and our school premises were shared. The London school had school in the afternoon and we went in the morning. They had their own teachers. During the afternoon we had to listen to the wireless B.B.C. educational broadcasts at home.
My mother鈥檚 cousin and child from Bexley Heath stayed as evacuees at the beginning of the war and my mother worked part-time in an office (doing accounts) because the men had gone to war.
My father was very busy as he was a school鈥檚 welfare officer for Luton and was in charge of billeting for the evacuees. He had to resolve many problems. He was also a special constable and was on duty every third night patrolling the town in the blackout.

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