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15 October 2014
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Soup in a tin hat

by ateamwar

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Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed byÌý
ateamwar
People in story:Ìý
Jessie Baker,her husband, her son Raymond,ARP warden,
Location of story:Ìý
claudia street,Gwladys st. Liverpool near Everton Football ground
Background to story:Ìý
Civilian
Article ID:Ìý
A5344364
Contributed on:Ìý
26 August 2005

This story appears courtesy of and with thanks to the Liverpool Diocean Care and Repair Association and James Taylor.

There was a shower of planes coming over and we thought they were ours. I was in the house then I was upstairs; I was doing the rooms out with bits of carpet over the bannister.
Well my son was in the shelter and he was in the bunk bead, my husband happened to be there and said, "Have you seen anything of our Jessie?Don't tell me she's gone out again".
They said,"No, I think she's gone in your house".
So all at once these planes we thought were ours turned out to be Germans. they were after the Everton Football ground because they thought it was a factory.
Well all our windows were out and I was blown down stairs. I was flabbergasted and said."Oh, This is funny" and a chap came out of the shelter and he said, "What are you doing in the road, Jessie?".
I said, "I've just been vlown down the stairs".
"Oh No!" he said, "your husband will murder you!".
I said, "Will he? Well he'll have a job".
So he said,"You'd better get up and get in the shelter".
"Where have you been?" I said, "I've been upstairs doing the rooms."
"Oh bugger the rooms, blow the rooms!"I said,"I want something to do, what's the point of being cooped up?" Anyway one word to another and I seen the face of my husband and he said- "Where have you been Jessie?"
I said, "oh, don't you start. Leave me alone."
They said I'd had a bit of a shoc, and they gave me a drop of brandy to get the shock out of my system.

And there was an old woman in the shelterand she was Catholic, a bvery bitter one, and she had abottle of Holy water.
Well she kept saying, "Oh I must have another drink".

Well there was a funny fella there and he used to be the air raid warden and he used to buck us up.
He used to say, " Now, I'm going to tell you a story" and he'd had a few drinks you know, and he used to take his tin hat off and give it to my son and say, "Now listen Raymond, go to Gwladys Street School, and get that hat filled with soup".
He was only joking! So my son would say, "you don't want soup in a tinned hat".
And was making us laugh and trying to buck us up cause the planes were coming over and a couple of houses in our street got hit.
one got the water mains and the gas, they were gassed and drowned, and there bomb that hit the cemetry 'cause Anfield Cemetry was at the bottom of our street.

A couple of bombs were dropped there, they thought it was a factory. It was a right mess and we had no windows, they were all out, and eventually they all had to get boarded up didn't they?
A couple of the men got cracking on them, boarding them up.
We had canaries or budgies, well the poor things had gone and the cages were swinging in the breeze.

Eventually we got over it, but we were all total wrecks really cause we'd gone through sucha lot.

QUESTION:Did either of the football grounds get hit?
Well I lived in Claudia Street and the next street was Gwladys Street that was near to the football ground. A lot of damage was done because they'd had a new stand made and that was all damaged. Eventually things got starightened up in their own tin-pot way and a lot of people got killed. i know I couldn't go through it again, wouldn't like to see another War.

‘This story was submitted to the People’s War site by ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Merseyside’s People’s War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his/ her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.’

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