大象传媒

This is an extract of an interview by Abbie Ferrar.

"This story was submitted to the site by the 大象传媒's Peoples War Team, in partnership with Derwent Community Team and The Da Vinci School in the East Midlands with Irene Siddalls Permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

I was 19 when the war broke out, and I was the youngest in my family. I had one brother and three sisters. My mothers life was very difficult because she only had two pounds a week to live on. The rent at that time was 4 shillings and 20 pence as we know it now. In 1939, there was so much talk about people being afraid, that they built air raid shelters in peoples back gardens, and these had to be dug out 6 feet below level. A siren would sound when people were to go into the shelter. Everyone had to go into the shelters except the fire watch men and me.

In 1939 we were at war with the Germans, so people had to learn how to stay in the shelters as long as the sirens were on. The war had started and we were given gas masks, a ration book for food, 2ounce butter and sugar, potatoes, carrots, parsnips to make a nice stew. There was no saying you didn鈥檛 want it, you just had to have it. Clothes were on rations as well.

I was born in 1920, I worked at the factory in Stockhill Street, and because we couldn鈥檛 get the steel, I was sent to the railway to work on the aeroplane wings. When the sirens went, we had to find our way down the shelter. I was the last one to get there with the gentle man that I worked with, and the Germans dropped a bomb. I was pushed down into the shelter and finished up in hospital, I was very lucky, I was just knocked out. A Lone German plane had come over out of the clouds in the morning, and started firing the full length of Abby street, and a gentleman opened the door and dragged me through. That event killed quite a lot of people.

I couldn't go down the shelter, so I was fixed up with a khaki balaclava, and khaki coat, boot and sock, and they would hear me hovering about on the nails and I went with the warden because I couldn鈥檛 go down the shelter.

When the men went into the armed forces, the women took over and they worked 12 hours on the farm, and they worked very hard. My brother worked with the tanks, and he was mentioned for his bravery.

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