大象传媒

My Uncle Bob鈥檚 War

My Great Uncle Bob was 13 when the war started. He was living in Hull, East Yorkshire at the time. He staying in Hull throughout the war. There was a lot of bombing during the war in Hull and his dad built a brick bomb shelter with bunk beds for him and his younger brother to sleep in. Bob says that he got used to the bombing, but they were grateful when there were quiet nights.

Because his school was in the Centre of Hull, it was closed due to the risk of it being bombed. He had to travel to another school further out of the city. The children from his school were there for the mornings and the children whose school it was went in the afternoons.

During the war he didn鈥檛 really think about the food he had to eat. He just ate what he was given because he knew that was all that there was. The only treat he remembers was having some tinned jam that came from South Africa.

Uncle Bob doesn鈥檛 think he was ever scared during the war. His parents allowed him and his brother to watch the bombers, searchlights and anti-aircraft guns overhead, but didn鈥檛 show that they were frightened to their children.

Uncle Bob was 18 in 1944, before the end of the war. This meant that he had to do Military Service. From 1944 to 1945, he did his training for the Fleet Air Arm in Scotland, Hampshire (England) and in the USA. This was the first time he had ever travelled away from home on his own. Sometimes he had to cross London when the Germans were sending Doodlebugs and he had to cross the Atlantic when the Germans were torpedoing boats. Apart from these two situations, he thought that Hull was the most dangerous place to be in, when he was home on leave.

After the war he joined the RAF and served in Egypt and Ceylon until 1947.

By Josef

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