大象传媒

In September 1939 I was 8 years old and lived in Luton Bedfordshire. We were not allowed to go to school until the Air- raid shelters were completed.We had to meet in small groups of 6 to 8 children in someone's home. Our teacher, who must have had a terrible time,used to cycle from one group to another setting us work for the day. Then we would go home and get on with whatever we had been given. The next day we would go back to the same or another house to meet our teacher again to hand in the work which we had done and collect some more.
Luton is a town in a hollow of the Chiltern Hills. It was an industrial town and probably the most important factory was SKEFKO which made ball bearings. The town also made shells, fuses,tanks etc. In an attempt to protect these factories on moonlit nights, when the raids were most likely, a smoke screen was lit. All around the town there were burners which burnt old oil or anything else that would make a lot of smoke.They were lit so that the smoke flowed over the town and if you were near them, the next morning all around your mouth and nose would be black from the fumes. Goodness knows what it did to our lungs.
June Mickleburgh nee Darton

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