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A Boxing Match ?
War memories Gloucester, aged 7-14

We were going on holiday and there had been much talk of war. I asked my eldest sister what a war was, she tried to explain and I said "Oh, it's like a boxing match "
Some boxing match !

Although I have lived in New Zealand for the past thirty years My memories of the war in England are still clear.

As a seven year old at the start of the war I was never allowed to play in the road, imagine my delight when we were instructed by our teacher to lie in the road if a German aircraft came over low, this never happened to me but I did so wish it would.

I can never remember being frightened even though in Gloucester, where I lived, there were bombings and planes flying overhead on their way to and from Germany on raids. My father worked in a hospital and because of this he received early warnings of impending raids. I think these were called yellow warnings. As soon as these warnings came we all were taken from our beds to the shelter in a field near the hospital. This was a slit trench covered in iron and sand bags and was used by employees and their families. I can remember walking along a lane with blankets round our shoulders and down the steps into this cold uncomfortable place. There was a strict warning from my Mother not to put my head anywhere near the evacuees as I was told ‘their heads are alive’

We were allowed to go to school at 10am if there had been a raid during the night, because of the yellow warnings I was often late and the teacher would tell me I was not telling the truth as their had been no raid in the night. Often these yellow warnings would mean that German aircraft were a long way away and would not be coming directly to Gloucester. The hospital had early warnings to allow them time to evacuate the patients.

The deep shattering ‘BOOM’ of the anti aircraft guns very close to us, the wail of the sirens and listening to the sound of the planes. ‘Is it one of ours ?’.

Buses were few and far between at times during the war, the winter of 1942 was very cold and we would often have to walk to school, a distance of some three miles. On arrival our hair that was sticking out of our pixie hoods would be frozen. It was difficult to tell where you were if you travelled in a bus at night, the windows were covered with only a slit of light showing. The bus conductors would call out the name of the next stop but even that was stopped in case a spy used the information to find his way around.

At school we had to share with another school which had been evacuated from an area where there was a lot of bombing. They used the school in the morning and we went in the afternoon. This was accepted and did not upset our learning.

We had a row of shelters in the school grounds and were always pleased when the sirens went and we could go to the shelters where we sat facing each other on wooden forms. We sang songs to while away the time and I expect it was to stop us worrying about the bombs. There was always a groan when the ‘all clear’ went and we had to return to our class rooms.

My Mother had filled a large biscuit tin with silver and other precious items and this was buried in the garden. This was when England was expecting to be invaded by the Germans.

We ate a lot of rabbit during the war. My father would shoot them and I can see us in the kitchen at night watching him skin them and cut them up ready for cooking. My Mother made a beautiful rabbit pie but I did not like the rabbit stew with its pale gravy. Meat was scarce and my Mother was scared of the butcher, he would give her inferior cuts of meat and she would make it into stew that had to be cooked a long time.

Sweets were rationed so my Mother would make peppermint lumps which we all loved. I can see her beating our meagre butter ration with water to make it go further. It must have been very difficult feeding a family but I can never remember feeling that we were not well fed.

Many nights we lay and heard the English bombers coming back from raids on Germany, if they sounded as though they were in trouble we would hop out of bed and peep through the curtains. Sometimes there was fire coming from the planes and they would disappear over the hill, we would be left wondering of they had made it safely back.

My older sisters would take part in fire watching. This would mean that they went to the local school and slept on camp beds .. They would take it in turn to patrol the roof and watch out for fires starting in the surrounding area.

There must have been an awful lot of people who had very little sleep during these years.

I can remember the local aircraft factory being bombed, it was just as the workers were leaving. They dropped bombs on the factory and the car park, hoping to stop the workers leaving. They then tried to bomb the main road near us so that help could not get through. They missed the road but hit a row of houses. I can see the workers coming down the road bleeding from cuts and abrasions, most of them were on bicycles.

Later in the war there were the doodle bugs, bombs with no pilots. You would listen to the engine and then hold your breath when it went silent. The next thing there would be an explosion and you would be thankful that it was no closer.

Clothing was rationed and you had to have coupons to buy it. With four girls to clothe this must have been difficult for my Mother, I think she was the one who went without anything new. I can remember with the ration books having to go to an official in town and receive a special page of coupons when I stayed with an Aunt in another town. This Aunt did very well for food, they had stockpiled things like sugar when the war started and they never seemed to go short.

I grew up during the war but it did not affect me unduly, we were lucky that no one from our family was killed and I think we accepted life as it was. There was terrific excitement on VE and VJ Days. On VE day my sister and I went into town on our bicycles and everyone was singing and shouting. On VJ day we burnt an effigy of Tojo on a large bonfire.

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