大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Joanne Burgess on behalf of Tim Warham and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

I have a certain job when we hear the sirens at night. If we are in bed I am up and dressed as quick as I can and carry the gas masks and mother鈥檚 bag to the shelter, whilst she carries little brother. I can remember three very bad nights the night our street got a landmine a warden came and told us I was very frightened. My Father was out firefighting them. He came in with his arm burnt and Mother bandaged it up.
Then he went out again. What a relief when the All Clear blew. We went out and the sky was one red glow from the fires in the city. The street was covered with bricks, tiles, shrapnel and soot. There was no water or gas. Then the sirens blew on the eighth and ninth of May last year. I was asleep on the bunks which my Dad had made for us when I was awakened by a sudden crash. I could hear bricks and debris falling on our shelter top, windows crashing and guns banging. I was very frightened and when the All Clear blew we could not go home until Mother and Dad had cleared up all the broken glass and ceiling that had fallen down. All the doors and window frames were broken and we had to be careful of the great beams of wood which had flown through the air from somewhere and were resting on our tiles ready to fall.

Now when I hear the warning blowing I am startled at first, but I soon calm down. Its when I hear the aeroplanes that I am most frightened because we can not do anything but just sit and wait, even if we sing, I still try to listen for anything happening outside. I hope we do not have any more nights like those, but if we do, we are keeping our spirits up until we hear the last All Clear and our friends and relatives come home again.

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