大象传媒

In the cul-de-sacs in Hope Street, the council had built air-raid shelters in, Gore St, Bedford St and Wilton St, many of the adjoining streets also had shelters whilst in Birkenhead Park. They had built a couple of large communal air-raid shelters to accommodate the locals. The park itself had, had all the iron railings removed to help the war effort, and wagons from the council ha d visited all the streets asking for aluminium pans especially for the purpose of building aircraft, the response from the public had been tremendous, of late there had a been a few stray bombs which had fallen and with the disaster at the French port of Dunkirk, it seemed as if the Germans had gained courage. The raids became more persistent, the month of May 1940 would be remembered by many of the town鈥檚 inhabitants. In the shelters in Bedford St, which smelt strongly of creosote, the Dawson family, with others, were sitting with an oil lamp burning for light in the dark, the siren had sounded a half hour previously, the steady drone of the German bombers could be distinctly heard amongst the heavy crashes of the anti-air craft guns, the shrill whistle of the falling bombs, one by one which seemed to get nearer and nearer.
Out in the street, the whistles of the Air Raid Wardens could be heard, with the clang of the fire engines as they made their way to where they were wanted, the ack-ack were still firing and were joined by the mobile guns from Arrowe Park, bombs still making their screams before exploding on contact. It seemed to be moving further away and the drone of aircraft diminished after a while.
The next day, the extent of the bomb damage could be seen where ever you went. The whole of Moon St and Rose St, had been almost wiped out. In most places they were still digging for survivors, as the Co-Op they found a complete bin on the counter which had penetrated the roof, a ceiling, a floor and a ceiling before coming to rest on the counter, and in Rose St, they had to climb the roof opposite to get someone who lay in bed who had been blown there by the explosion. A lot of incendiary bombs had fallen and caused lots of fires, some of which were still burning and smouldering, in the air the smell of burning and debris caught the back of your throat.

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