大象传媒

I talked to my friend, Peter Grant, who lived in Hull during the War. He was 5 years old at the time and his father was in the RAF. He told me that his Uncle died, and his neighbours were actually killed by a bomb landing on their house. Due to bombing, he had to spend time in the Anderson shelter and described it as being cold, damp, dark and bleak with only one torch. "It got you down quite a lot", he exclaimed, "the best you could do was to just carry life on normally".

Everyone still went to school but had to wear gas masks. Another thing that kept their spirits up was the fact that everyone was really close and kept track of the news, informing them what was going on. Peter thought the rationing was quite good, no-one had too much of anything, you had a bit of everything, even poor people could afford food! Another way of providing food was growing their own, e.g vegetables in the garden, chickens etc. Most of this happened in Scotland where Peter was evacuated.

His biggest fears in everyday life were people getting killed, especially since his dad was in the RAF! Luckily, it was a happy ending as he was very relieved when his father returned home safely. He felt great and it was an exciting experience for him. The troops were returning home and they had street parties where everyone made something and laid it on the table. Everyone was sociable, even in the War people held social events, dances etc and raised money. The raised money was mainly spent on things like aeroplanes, such as Spitfires, and ships.

Peter was probably overwhelmed when the War ended but I wondered how he felt when it started. He explained that he was too young to understand it and was just worried because everyone else was worried.

It wasn't that bad for a boy his age as it was interesting to collect things like pieces of uniform and bullets. The thing they collected mostly, though, was shrapnel. Shrapnel was bits of metal from bombs and it was best and most valuable if the shrapnel was hot. So the War obviously had its advantages for Peter. They were all good friends and cared for one another and helped each other. The worst thing though was people getting killed, according to Peter. He said he was lucky he didn't know anyone who was injured or suffered too badly!

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