大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the site by the 大象传媒's Peoples War Team in the East Midlands with Beryl Bickerstaffes permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

I remember being very frightened until 1938. I didn鈥檛 really understand what was going on. When war was finally declared in 1939 it was almost a relief; IT had happened but I still didn鈥檛 really understand what IT was. In our house we had photographs of my mothers brothers killed in the 1914/1918 war and a large print of a soldier saying goodbye to his dying horse. Neither really elevating nor encouraging to say the least. Initially when the sirens went , ones pulses would race and one felt terrified. During the phoney war we became blas茅 and didn鈥檛 bother even to get up during the night. Consequently when we had real air raids we weren鈥檛 ready. When Dad came to get us up I was very frightened but once outside and one realised what was happening, the fear disappeared and one almost enjoyed what one was doing. The adrenalin was running, later in the cellar one got down.

Newspapers were limited to a certain size and there was a recycling scheme in operation. It was quite interesting to follow the size diminution of newspapers.

As regards the radio we had two programmes, the home service and the light programme; there was also a forces programme but mostly this was broadcast abroad, a forerunner of the 大象传媒 World Service. Everyone listened to the News (no-one missed the main news at 9.00pm) and many people, including my father, had a huge map pinned up on the wall and sets of coloured pins which he duly moved and the war ebbed and flowed. The pins were specially prepared ones with swastikas for Germans, Tricolour for French, Union Jacks for us and other nationalities as they came into the war zone, the stars and stripes naturally was the last one in not being keen to risk their men when others could be sacrificed instead.

There were several programmes such as ITMA with the famous Tommy Handley. There were other programmes produced as a direct result of the war such as Forces Favourites a request programme between families at home and forces abroad, workers playtime which featured popular comedians.

At school the news was referred to at assembly. The names of ex pupils killed were added to the Roll of honour at the end of each term and extra boards were added to accommodate the numbers. There was also a paper roll of those missing or missing believed dead.

On Sundays immediately prior to the 9.00pm news the National Anthems of all the allies were played in order of joining the war so we started with the old German National anthem, Austria, Poland and so on until the last one. There were quite a lot of anthems from the Middle East and Asia, The Philippines and other far flung places and islands. When Italy changed sides that was included too. The Countries of the then empire, now the Commonwealth or Independent were also included. The programme took a long time at the beginning of its life and just got longer and longer.

Other wartime programmes were the Radio Doctor with tips and hints on how to keep well and various food programmes giving recipes and other tips on how to get the best out of the rations and keep ones family fit. One, The Bagshaws family gave recipes, also tips on make do and mend in the playlet form.

Before the reading of any news bulletin came the words 鈥渢his is the British Home service and here is the news; this is 鈥︹��. reading it.鈥� We got to know all their names and voices, I remember Alvar Lidell and Steward Hibbert 鈥� this latter, probably because he could make his voice sound so serious when reading out the bad news and consequently acquired the nickname of curse hibbert.

Large areas of public gardens and playing fields were given over to horticulture and people were encouraged to dig for victory and grow vegetable and soft fruit etc. This meant that less food had to be imported and therefore, less loss of life amongst merchant seamen. People were encouraged to keep chickens and even pigs if they had room in their gardens. The egg ration was one half of an egg per person per week and two the next 鈥� we did however have dried egg!

With regard to merchant shipping. Most of these ships travelled in large convoys guarded by royal navy destroyers and frigates. Only two-thirds of each convoy from America got through on average. Convoys to the Island of Malta had great difficulty in keeping the island supplied with food, troops, armaments etc. My cousin Muriel鈥檚 husband, Ron was stationed in Malta for most of the war, they were on constant alert and bombed practically every night and day.

One evening my father took me to a classical concert 鈥� string quartets 鈥� in the Albert Hall. This, of course, due to the buses finishing at or before 9.30pm finished about 9.00pm but my father stayed outside chatting to a friend of his when he left him the last bus was gone. We had to walk. On our way home we came across a soldier sitting leaning up against a wall with his legs straight out, we nearly tripped over him He said he had been waiting for a bus to take him back to his camp in Colwick Woods were he was one of the Ack Ack crews and had been up for many nights working and was just overtired. Everyone was overtired as we were losing so much sleep.

During the time leading up to D Day all sorts of painted signs appeared all over town such as Start Second Front Now. The build up was obvious to anyone. At that time the only road bridge over the river trent was Trent Bridge. Convoys of army transports frequently came down London Road or Arkwright Street and went over the bridge, through West Bridgford and on towards Grantham and the A1. The convoys began with motor bikes which were also interspersed at intervals all along its length, the armoured cars and staff cars then tanks interspersed with lorries full of troops. They were very very slow as they proceeded at the pace of the slowest tank. The troops waved as they went along. We were frequently late for school and no one was allowed to cross the road through a convoy. These convoys were usually 3,4,5 and even 6 miles long. They came at a rate of several per day just prior to D Day.

It was very difficult to concentrate on school work at such a time. Everyone was anxious, especially people with fathers and/or brothers involved. We had loads of new posters to put up all over school and the same things appeared on and in public buildings of all kinds giving the same message; Walls have Ears, Hitler is listening. It was obvious even to us that if we knew that these convoys were going south probably to prepare for invasion, then the Nazis must know too. There was much practicing at this time with gliders. We discovered later that this, too was connected with the invasion of Europe.

Etta often asked me to tea at her aunt and uncles house and, after her aunt had met my mother and learn about what Etta could and could not eat as a Jewess, she came for tea to us and, later, her aunt and uncle came too. Although they were Jews they were not orthodox and were quite cosmopolitan.

There were many soldiers, sailors and airmen in our forces. As further anti-semitic news from Germany became known, Jewish forces were placed in units not likely to come into direct contact with Germans or sent to places where they could be taken prisoner. This wasn鈥檛 general knowledge until after the war.

My father was Church Warden at a church that had burned down during the blitz. The Church restoration fund became a focal point in keeping the congregation together. Several people of my generation put on a pantomime each year from 1942 to 1946 held in the Regent Hall for four nights after Christmas. This raised quite a lot of money but was also great fun as we wrote them ourselves and did everything connected therewith. Bazaars were held selling things made by church members. My mother used to make aprons out of old cotton cresses and others knitted children鈥檚 jumpers etc. from wool pulled down from old jumpers. The Church hall with whist drives for the non-dancers. There was so little entertainment at the time that these things seemed extremely desirable.

The British Film Studios were making war films from very early on in the war and secret service type films from earlier than that. I remember particularly one such film (probably in 1938) where two men were trying to get out of Germany and having many difficulties and trials and tribulations (it was intended as a humorous film) and there was a time limit for them getting back to London. It was only at the very end of the film that one discovered that they were trying to get to the test match v Australia. Quite a lot of these war films were good, some very good 鈥� 鈥淥ne of our aircraft is missing鈥�, 鈥淢rs Miniver鈥�, 鈥淒angerous Moonlight鈥� they all had plots that contained more lets bash the Nazi鈥檚 and win. Once the Americans entered the fray, we had films on the theme of how Errol Flynn (or other Hollywood stars) won the war. All films were either black & white or glorious Technicolor there being no colour film at the time. There was a news cinema on Parliament Street next door to the Turkish Baths which had one hour showing all through the day and evening of news only. This was very popular.

Aunts Gergiev and Elsie had always had a week in London together in the spring before the war. There was much laughter at their expense when they arrived back one time during the war, I can鈥檛 remember which date. They had always stayed at the Strand Palace Hotel which was centrally situated but not too dear. They arrived at St Pancras Station and took a taxi telling the driver where to take them, the driver tried to tell them something but Auntie Gertie said 鈥渘onsense man, of course we want to get there and we have reservations鈥�. When they arrived they found a heap of rubble 鈥� the hotel had received a direct hit. The taxi driver helped them to get accommodation elsewhere and they enjoyed their stay even though every night was spent in the shelter beneath the hotel.

After D Day I went with these two aunts for a week in London at the beginning of September. The flying bombs 鈥淒oodle Bugs鈥� or V1 rockets had started arriving and we watched them during the day and listened to them at night. When the engine stopped the rocket/bomb began to descend. It exploded when it hit. If the bomb passed over you with its engine still running, it would land on you but further west. Later the V2 rockets came into use; these were faster, held more high explosive and had some degree of direction guidance. In July 2000 I visited the Cabinet War Rooms Exhibition in Whitehall (this is an excellent place to visit with a real feel to it of what life was like then) there were some statistics about flying bombs there covering the first two months of V1 attacks.

In London we saw what of the tourist scene was still open:- the Tower, madam Tussauds, Cathedrals, the Zoo, Hampton Court. We also saw (who could help it) the vast amount of bomb damage. All around St Paul鈥檚 Cathedral the buildings were flattened; the view from the top of Westminster was awe inspiring 鈥� so very much devastation. We visited the East End starting with Lambeth. It was weird going on the tubs past stations with tiers of bunks against the walls with bags of suitcases on them and large notices with the name of whose bunk this was. Everyone had their own territory.

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