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Once bombs fell on the school over the road from where my family and I lived in Birmingham (Clifton Road School in Sparkbrook) — the ARPs came to put it out and asked to borrow out buckets, as my father owned a painters and decorators (I was his apprentice) we had lots of buckets, we lent them 12 and helped them to put out the fire. However, the buckets were never returned, my father never forgot this and complained on a daily basis about the loss of his buckets. It was as if Hitler himself had stolen them!

As the bombings continued houses, shops and factories were raised to the ground — where they used to be were piles of rubble. White Street was completely wiped out. The central areas of Birmingham took a lot of the heavy bombing, Walsall in particular was very badly hit — it became known as Bomb Alley or Bomb Blasted Balsall Heath.

Spitfires were being made in Castle Bromwich which made it a prime target for the bombers, to try to confuse the bombers smoke canisters were put along the roads — every 100 yards or so. These were metal containers about as big as a dustbin on top of that there was a long steel chimney. During heavy raids when they thought it necessary these were lit — they contained crude oil and rags etc, they gave out a filthy black smoke which we could see from our house which was a long way from Castle Bromwich. On a clear night it would silently rise and obliterate everything. The houses in that area were filthy the smoke would get into houses and get into the fabrics, curtains etc. These canisters were maintained by the Pioneer Corps and they were absolutely filthy themselves —black from head to foot. If the factories in Castle Bromwich had been damaged and production of the Spitfires halted it could have been a very different end to the war.

This story was submitted to the People’s War website by Diana Wilkinson of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester and has been added to the site with Mr Harry Devy’s permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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