大象传媒

This contribution to People鈥檚 War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk and submitted to the website with the permission and on behalf of Mrs. B. Thurlow
Comradeship and Companionship

I was born in July 1934, in Mile Cross, Norwich and was only 5 years old when War broke out in Sept 1939. I had started school the previous year aged 4. The first change I can remember was being fitted for a gas mask, a child鈥檚 Mickey Mouse version which was in a brown cardboard box that had a cord on to carry around the shoulders at all times including to and from school. Later it was changed to a different mask as I grew bigger, which wasn鈥檛 so pretty!

My parents dug up all our lawn and we started to grow our own vegetables. Black and white currant bushes and new raspberry canes were planted. We already had apple, cherry and plum trees in the garden, which were well established and my swing was under the plum tree so I could pull fruit off the tree whilst swinging, something which still has a lovely memory for me in what were those troubled times.

I lived at the Mile Cross Post Office where groceries, stationery, and some medicines were also sold. There were lots of changes due to the war which meant my Mum and Dad having to work very long hours, rationing of food, clothes, and petrol started, and lots more people were getting a pension from the Armed Forces.
All basic foods were rationed and therefore the food had to be counted, ie: 2ozs of butter per person, 4ozs of sugar, one loaf of bread per family, and so on. Nothing was pre packed, sugar was delivered in sacks so it was my job to weigh the sugar into small blue bags and butter and margarine had to be cut from blocks carefully, so that there was enough to go round.
Gone were bananas, oranges and fruits from foreign countries as the ships couldn鈥檛 carry things that were classed as luxuries. Most people, like ourselves, had dug up their gardens so we had plenty of local fruit and vegetables, but butchers had to ration all their meat as it was in short supply. This brought about long queues of people, because as soon as there was news that some food had been delivered to a shop people would rush in with their ration books to get at it, so we knew that once that delivery had been sold there might not be any more for another month. This was all very different to what you experience now, going into big supermarkets and being surrounded by every kind of food imaginable.

My Dad had to sell his car, as did many other people, because petrol was rationed, and unless you were a Doctor, Nurse, Policeman, etc, you couldn鈥檛 have petrol coupons. My brother, who is five years older than me used to deliver groceries on his bicycle especially to older customers who couldn鈥檛 get to the shop.

One thing that stands out in my mind is going to school one morning and seeing that all the iron railings and gates that had once surrounded the school had gone! Looking around, all the fences that had iron in them from houses had also disappeared. They had been taken to help to make parts for aeroplanes as the metal had been melted down.

Life went on very much the same until the Blitz in April 1942. We had had practise air raid warnings, lots of drills to get us into shelters and what to do if we had to use our gas masks. However, life went on and as a child I remember the warm sunny days playing with my friends in Losinga Crescent, Norwich. As there were no cars, we could quite happily play hop-scotch, marbles and other games in the road with no danger of getting run over. There were a lot more aeroplanes in the skies and American airmen around all in their uniforms, all our own soldiers, sailors and airmen also wore their service uniforms when they were around, which gave a sense of security.
My Dad was in the ARP, and we had a Home Guard billet (hut) in our garden (all part of the war effort). My Dad was exempt from going in the army and had to go and work at Mann Egerton鈥檚 which during the war made parts and assembled things for aeroplanes; it was called a Munitions factory. My Mum then had to run the Post Office and grocery business, three local girls were employed that became friends as well as employees and they were with us for quite a number of years.

My most vivid memory is of the Blitz. There had been lots of air raid warnings but, on this particular night, Monday April 27th 1942, we were all in bed when the siren went. My Mum said afterwards that she had this feeling that this was for real, so she had woken us up. My Dad had gone on duty as an ARP warden and had said to get down to the shelter. My brother however wouldn鈥檛 get up, when the crash siren went he slowly emerged, but it was too late for us to get to the shelter, so the three of us sat on the stairs. The lights had gone out, but we had a candle, by which my brother sat calmly reading a book, as the bombs were dropping around us, and some of the ceiling fell down!
The bombs sounded very, very close to our house so my Dad made his way back to us, and was very worried that we weren鈥檛 in the shelter, but he had to go back on duty. He said that several houses had had direct hits, very close by, with many people injured; he would get back to us as soon as he could. It seemed like a lifetime sitting on those stairs, but as daylight broke, and the bombing stopped, we ventured out to see the damage. Our shop fronts were completely out, lots of the items that were in the shop had been blown out onto the pavement and many people walking along Aylsham Road with furniture on hand carts, looking very bewildered. Amazingly we had no looting, but kind friends helped us to gather things together and get temporary boards in the window frames, as business had to carry on as usual. Pensioners still had to be able to get their money, and rations were still needed. I don鈥檛 think my parents got any sleep for days, but as a child you don鈥檛 really notice.

The next night, Tuesday, was relatively calm, with not much activity although there was still quite a lot of damage done, but that night we did go down to our shelter to sleep. As we were not entitled to have a Morrison or Anderson shelter my parents had at the beginning of the war had an air raid shelter built, just in case. It was a solid brick building deep under the ground, there were 19 concrete steps around 12 inches deep to go down to get into it with two double bunk beds, two chairs and a table down there. There was also an emergency exit manhole just above the beds where we stood candles, although my Dad had had battery lights put in, but these didn鈥檛 last long if used for any length of time. The mattresses were kept in the house and were taken with bedding into the shelter just before dark. It was very cold and bleak, in spite of being painted a soft yellow distemper. The emergency food and drinks had also been taken down to the shelter during the day. It was quite a frightening experience for a young girl, but I did have the comfort of my family around me. Incidentally, the toilet was a bucket!

The next night Wednesday, April 29th I remember as being the most terrifying. Bombs yet again seemed to be dropping all around us. It almost seemed worse in the shelter being in such a confined space; no windows, very cold and in candle light. Our shelter was only yards away from the Barracks, now the Territorial Army Barracks, where soldiers stationed were firing from the top of the building, so it was very noisy. It was such a long night. We ventured out when the all clear sounded in the early light of day. Once again all the shop windows had been blown out and the streets were full of glass. There was a cloud of smoke all around, trees had been uprooted and lots of silver strips were hanging on buildings and trees; streams of men, women and children with their belongings were heading for the Boundary Woods on the outskirts of Norwich which now has some of the Asda building on it. There had been incendiary bombs which caused fires as well as the bombs that created big craters. The planes even dropped a nasty little bomb called a butterfly bomb, which looked fairly harmless, but if you touched them they exploded. Many children were killed by these. I can remember, every time I left the house, my parents warning me not to touch anything or pick up anything that was lying around.
Schools were closed, and the school at the bottom of Aylsham Road, near Magpie Road took a direct hit. Many people were evacuated from that area and many spent the next few weeks sleeping in our school hall at Mile Cross Infants-Primary. My four friends and I, once things had settled down, were taught at home for quite some time, taking it in turns to go to each others houses where a teacher came for 2 or 3 hours twice a week. We were obviously set a lot of work to do at home, but it was nice that we had the chance to do our homework together.

There was sadness at this time too. Two of my classmates and their families were killed in one of the raids and several people injured. When the list of people killed came out we knew quite a few of them as they had been pensioners, or customers, of our shop and lived fairly close by. There was also a sense of complete togetherness. Everybody seemed to help everybody who was in need and to share the grief that so many were experiencing. Families were very close.
Some of my happiest memories of the War were when the bombing was finished and there were not so many Air raid warnings then my Aunties, Uncles and friends of the family would get together at our house and would play darts, games and have a good old sing song. Although day to day living was more normal there was still the occasional enemy plane that got through the net and did quite a lot of damage. Two children of a family I knew very well were killed when an American plane crashed in the gardens of Spinkes Road and I remember the whole city of Norwich seemed numb when a German plane machine gunned down a group of workers leaving to go home for lunch, quite a large number were killed

Because we had double summer time during the War years as a child I particularly recall the long summer nights. After the War and for quite a long time afterwards rationing continued, I remember being SO excited when the first bananas were delivered to the local greengrocery, I queued for ages to get one banana, without using a ration book. That banana tasted wonderful!

Hopefully new generations will not have to experience another World War and Peace will generally prevail, looking back on those war years even through the eyes of a child it is something I will never forget recalling both sad and happy times. It would be so nice if we could recapture the sense of comradeship and companionship that existed during those times, sadly when reading newspapers, listening to the radio and watching television I have notice that there is not much evidence of this today.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.