大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Susan Hahn of Darlington Borough Council on behalf of Eric Robertshaw and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was born in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire in 1935, and that is where I lived with my family during the war.
We kept pigeons before the war but they had to be killed when the war started because the government used pigeons to carry messages for the war effort so people could only keep them if they had a licence for them.
My family had a smallholding, we used to grow extra vegetables in the big field,we also kept pigs and hens. Some of our food rations coupons had to be given up because we had extra meat from the pigs. We always had plenty of eggs from the hens.
All my family were issued with identity cards,we all had our own number which later became our National Health number. Everyone got a gas mask which we had to carry everywhere in case of a gas attack. However we never needed them.Babies had a big gas mask in which they were put right inside.
When the clocks changed during the war they were changed for 2 hours instead of 1, so that everyone could work longer in daylight.
In Halifax we had evacuees, some were from London. The evacuees I knew were whole families, and after the war they decided to stay in Yorkshire.
As the war went on German Prisoners of War came to nearby Brearley.They worked on the roads,they worked for a while even after the war had finshed.
My Uncle Thomas went to be a soldier in 1944.He spent all his time in Egypt He returned home after the end of the war.
We heard flying bombs towards the end of the war,some crash landed near Halifax, I found some shrapnel nearby.
When the war started the tops of the street gas lights were taken off,so at night it was very dark. I remember vividly the night after the end of the war ended when all the street lights were put on again. It was wonderful.
When the war finished my Dad cut up some trees and we had a big bonfire.

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