大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by CSV/大象传媒 Radio Nottingham on behalf of Mrs Betty Tuberfield with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

My name was Betty Benjafield, I was 9 on the 16th July 1930 as war was declared in the September.
My family the Benjafields 鈥� mother, father, brothers Walter and Alfie, sister Margaret, then me the youngest, had just moved to Enfield, Middlesex onto a new estate, the name of the road was Addis Close, the shape of it was called a Banjo.
From this house, my brother, Wally, who was 19 years old was called up in the army, although he had lost an eye when he was 17, he passed his medical A1, which my parents couldn鈥檛 believe, cause men who had flat feet couldn鈥檛 enlist.
Anderson Shelters were issued to all houses, my dad and Alfie, my other brother, dug the hole for the shelter at the bottom of our garden, which I will mention later.
The family who lived in the house attached to us put their shelter near their house, they had a son about the same age as me, also another child, but I can鈥檛 remember much about him or her. His mother was a very kind lady, she would bring me treats when I was ill in bed.
I also had a friend who lived a couple of houses away, the reason I have mentioned these people, you will see as you read my memories.
After a short time we moved to a nicer house (as my Mother called it) the name of the street was Lansbury Road, a couple of streets from Addis Close.
My aunt May, Uncle Bill and their two daughters Pauline and Phyllis lived three doors away.
Dad was sent to Enfield Armoury Factory, to work, not the raids were getting worse, the factory was one of their main targets.
The new house had no shelter in the Garden, the house next door was empty but there was a shelter in their garden so we had to use it. By then we were having to sleep in the shelter every night, Dad would come home from work, listen to the wireless, I can remember hearing Mr Churchill voice, then like clock work the siren would go, everything was always ready in the hallway 鈥� blankets, candles, etc. then you would here the guns, you would stand with the front door open, when the guns stopped for a few seconds, you would count to ten, that was what we were told, it gave the shrapnel time to fall to the ground, you could still get injured by falling shrapnel, then we would run like hell to get in the shelter, because in the winter with no lights allowed this had to be done in the dark. From then on that鈥檚 how it was every night, you would wake up in the morning with condensation on your blanket round your face, and freezing cold in the winter.
This day I was walking home from school (which would sometimes be a room in someone鈥檚 house, in case they decided to bomb schools when the siren sounded I ran like mad to get home before the guns started. My mother wasn鈥檛 in, so I had to remember the drill, count to ten, before I ran down to the shelter, I was just tall enough to look out of the opening. I remember looking up at the sky, it was a beautiful bright blue colour. I saw ours and Germans planes in battle, as I got older I realised I had been watching 鈥榯he Battle of Britain鈥�, we lost so many of our young pilots in those battles 鈥� as I stood there I heard my cousins calling me. They were in their shelter two gardens away, they were telling me to go over to them, I remember being really frightened, I clambered out of the shelter as quickly as I could, climbed over the first fence, over their garden, over the next fence and into their shelter, then I felt safe.

This is one of my worst memories 鈥� on this particular night we were in our shelter, we couldn鈥檛 sleep, the bombs were dropping so fast, first you heard the droning of the planes engines, then you would hear the explosions, these were getting so close. We all held each other Mum, Dad, my sister Margaret and me, then this terrific one, it felt like the shelter was lifting out of the ground. Dad said 鈥渢hat was close鈥�. In the morning people were out looking what damage had been done, a thing that people did after a raid 鈥� it was the very house in Addis Close that we had left a couple of weeks before, a young mother with her two small children had moved in, her sister who was on leave from the Wrens was staying with her on the night of the raid. Instead of using the shelter that my dad had put at the bottom of the garden they shared the next door neighbours (the lady who had been kind to me when I was ill). It was a direct hit, tow families lost their lives that night. I often think how did a young husband who was in the forces deal with that blow, losing all his family, wife and two children.
My friend who I mentioned lived in Addis Close, a couple of houses away, her father went out after the raid, saw the devastation of bodies, went back in his house, they found him dead in a chair, they said he died of shock.
As I write this episode of my memories my heart still feels very heavy and my eyes fill with tears, although I was very young it is still painful.

Eventually row large shelters were built on a piece of land at the bottom of the street for all to use, they were partially underground and covered with grass as camouflage looking like small hills, because we had no shelter of our own we started using them. Which really was worse, because you had further to run once the guns had stopped, I remember this night, my mother was holding my hand, running in the pitch dark, scared to death, when she fell down this hole that the workmen had left, she went hysterical she had cut her legs and hands. Aunt May and her family started using these shelters as well, when all the neighbours were down there and the doors were shut, you some how felt safe. People talking to each other, it all seemed so natural, but uncle Bill would not settle down, he kept going up the stairs and opening the doors and letting all the noise in, everyone kept shouting at him to shut them b doors, this night he called out 鈥渃ome and have a look at this鈥� the whole of the skyline was red with fire, the planes had bombed the London docks.

My mother鈥檚 sister, Lillian, had married a German before the war, his name was Shanudouf, they had a daughter called Freda. Aunt Lil died before the war, leaving Freda with her father, then when the war started, they put him in an internment camp, Freda came to live with us. She was about 14, but she proved to be a handful, when the raids were on for some reason she refused to go down the shelter, she would lay in bed cheeking my parents, as her guardians they didn鈥檛 know what to do with her, so she went to live with my mothers brother, uncle Alf, I never saw Freda again.

Some children where I lives were evacuated but my mother didn鈥檛 want me to go, sometime during the war I did come up to the Midlands, Long Eaton, Nottingham to stay with my Dad鈥檚 brother, Dick and his family, but I got too homesick and my Dad fetched me home on the back of his motorbike.

Aunt May and her family moved to Long Eaton about 1941 - 42. She wrote to say at least you could sleep in your beds at night. So eventually my family decided to do the same. Dad had to get permission to leave the Enfield Armoury where he worked, and got a job in Rolls Royce where there was a factory in Long Eaton during the war, but few people knew that.

I always felt so sad that my two brothers were away in other countries, serving their country. I remember Alfie being with the Desert Rats and I know Wally was somewhere in Italy, because he told me all about Rome, how one day he would like to go back after the war.

The strange thing is that with the families, on dad鈥檚 side and on mother鈥檚 side, most of them living in London during the Blitz and the boys and men in the forces serving abroad no one was killed. There wasn鈥檛 many families as lucky as that.

Like I said my family moved away, but I think the people who lived in the areas like London, Coventry and highly bombed areas must have had nerves of steel, it took such a big piece out of some people鈥檚 lives.

The ironic end to my story is that we moved from London to the country for safety but where did we go for short stays 鈥� London, to my aunt Maud鈥檚 and uncle Bens in Stoke Newington. Listening to Doodlebugs while we were in Bed 鈥� waiting for their engines to switch off.

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