大象传媒

Ivy Wallis
17.11.2003

I was 20 years of age when I met my husband 23 years, at Xmas 1939. At this time I was living with my parents at no 9 Cope Street, Coventry, only a stone throw away from our beautiful cathedral.

The houses in Cope St were really beautiful well built Victorian residential homes each having a cellar at ground level at the back. On the same level, a dining room, kitchen and bathroom. The war was progressing, bombing had started on our country so our local Coventry government saw the advantage of making these cellars into family air-raid shelters.

The roofs were heavily lined with corrugated sheeting held firmly in place, joisted and screwed up tightly to the ceiling by 6 separate appointed joists. Around a square meter of brickwork was taken from the wall between each cellar, replaced by breeze blocks which made it easier for knocking out making an escape hatch into next door, and so on up the street. Also an escape hatch was made on the front street side into the earth, and cement lined, in order to climb in by lifting or pushing up a flag stone, bringing us up into the front street by the front room window.

In this cellar containing only essential and important things we placed and left, along with food etc. 1 double bed and 1 single. The bombing became a nightly occurrence and Coventry was one of the first provincial cities to be bombed so devastatingly.

By this time Dunkirk had happened, my husband-to-be was now in the Regimental band of the Worcester Regiment. He insisted I came to Worcester away from the bombing. We were about to get married on 27th July 1940 and the wedding was to take place at The Salvation Army in Coventry but because all leave had been cancelled owing to Dunkirk we hurriedly re-arranged the wedding to take place at The Salvation Army in Worcester. The corps folk there were wonderful and everyone rallied round to help us and we had a great day. I stayed there and worked on war work for Wards Machine Tools.

I was away from the dreadful bombing in Coventry but my thoughts and prayers were with all the loved ones in Coventry. I used to come home when it was possible at weekends to visit my parents. This I did on that dreadful weekend of November 14th. There were 6 of us in our cellar shelter, 2 parents, my brother and his wife, a friend and myself. It all started between 6 and 7 pm getting worse and more frightening, we expected the whole house to collapse any moment. We could hear people screaming and running above our heads, the fire engines were fighting the fires in the street. By this time our escape wall was in use and the shelter was full of terrified and physically hurt people.

My brother came to me and said, 鈥渨e must do something, there are 40 people here, if we all go, no-one will know who was here鈥�. We emptied cakes from a tin, got all the names and put a brick inside and tied it with rope. Praise God it was never needed when we eventually heard the 鈥渁ll-clear鈥� and we saw the devastation and our cathedral in flames. We could see the outlines and skeleton architecture of the building, it was heart-breaking. People running hither and thither looking for each other and safety, a sight that will ever remain with me. Since the war ended, we have always lived in Coventry.

My husband and I are life-long Salvationists and are still happily married after 63 years!

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