大象传媒

An A.R.P warden in Stoke Newington

On April 6th, 1939 I got married. In September the war was declared and my husband Harry was called up and trained for the Army. We lived in Stoke Newington in north London. Our house was close to the reservoir which was a target for the Germans. We also had two parks within walking distance which had manned ack-ack guns so one can imagine the horrendous noise when they were in action during an air-raid and when bombs were dropped. During the Blitz the drone of the German planes passing over was very frightening. Where we lived not far from the City of London, we could see the glow from the tremendous fires caused by the masses of incendiary bombs. The Blitz was so awful 鈥� we were indeed so fortunate not to get a direct hit. Harry鈥檚 friends were not so lucky. Their house in Kensal Rise did get a direct hit so I joined my friends in rushing over there to help get them out from the ruins of their house. They escaped serious injury whereas many others died that same night. After that they moved to Devon and never came back.

My family took shelter in our cellar during air-raids. My father bought a camp-bed to sleep on in the cellar during the Blitz but my mother and I and our two friends had to sit in deckchairs which were cold. We learned to pack blankets underneath us. This couple from Winchmore Hill came every night to our house because their house didn鈥檛 have a cellar. The husband was Harry鈥檚 best friend but hadn鈥檛 been called up at the same time as Harry as his work in the Inland Revenue was considered 鈥榚ssential鈥�. When the siren sounded our Scottie, Jock, was the first to rush down into the cellar. I went out every time the sirens sounded as I was enlisted in the A.R.P on night-time duty in my street with just one other warden. We were trained in.what to do in case of fire and in how to help people in distress. We had some kind of walkie-talkie to contact our supervisors if anything happened. I was conscripted into munitions work during the day. . It amazes me now when I think how we managed to work after only very little sleep.

In the A.R.P. I had to wear a siren suit; this was my outfit until the end of the war. In the A.R.P we only used to have a thorough wash 鈥� a bath was out of the question in case the sirens sounded as we were always on duty. In fact, I can鈥檛 remember ever having a bath because the sirens were always going off. Water use was restricted anyway.. A standpipe was used by people living in our road. I used to fill up a heavy pail with water every day and somehow managed to carry it back to our house in all kinds of weather.

Food was rationed so we all lost weight 鈥� there was no need to diet then! It was a struggle managing on the food rations and learning to make a very little go far. It was difficult getting to the shops because as soon as the sirens sounded, the shutters came down. As soon as the all-clear came, we rushed to the shops to join the queues and then were told 鈥淣o more meat鈥� etcetera left that day. My father went to Clissold Park and was assigned an allotment to grow vegetables. Some people dug up their lawns to grow potatoes!

Later on in the war when the dreaded doodlebugs came we listened to them and said how lucky we were when they passed over and we could hear the awful explosions when they dropped. One evening I was in my kitchen at the top of the house when suddenly a V-2 rocket dropped very near and the ceiling came down on me. I was covered in plaster and the snow was coming in! I could hear screams from the houses on the other side of the reservoir where the doodlebug had fallen. The blast caused the window in my kitchen to blow in. Somehow I escaped being cut by the glass. So many houses were badly damaged or destroyed that night only to be replaced after the war by ugly, utilitarian blocks of flats.

When peace was declared we went crazy with joy and relief but I still had to wait for my husband to come home to bring our lives back to normality.

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