大象传媒

I was nine when the war started and we had our Anderson Shelter up quite early on. After we had put ours up we went round helping everyone else put theirs up. My brother and me were digging one for a neighbour and my brother said that he thought it was deep enough now. So we put down the sides and back filled it with dirt. I bolted it down. When my dad got home and came to check on us, he went mad because it wasn't deep enough and we had to go back round and do it all over again.

The floor in our shelter was concrete and also up the sides a bit. We had a sort of makeshift bunk with webbing and a mattress. My brother would never go into the shelter so it was just be my mom, my sister and me. My mom's friend and children would join us when the raids got really bad in Birmingham. We used to play cards and dominoes.

My job when the sirens went off was to pick up the blankets and a big old leather case that contained all our insurance policies and birth certificates. All the important stuff!
It was my mothers job to open the windows so that any blast wouldn't break them and to pick up our canary to take into the shelter with us. One night, we were all settled in the shelter when we realised we hadn't got the canary. The bombs were dropping by then so mom wouldn't let anyone go in and collect the bird. That was one of the only nights that the bombs were really close to our house. The next morning we rushed in the house but the poor canary had died of shock!

If the weather was really bad the shelter would fill with water so we would go under the stairs. But I hated doing that. On the nights that there was a raid, we were allowed to be late for school and if the raid was very long or bad then we didn't have to go at all.

My dad had a duodenal ulcer and couldn't eat the same food as us. For ages mom had to cook other food for him. Twice he went into hospital to have this seen to and twice he was sent home because the hospital had run out of anaesthetic. The raid had been so bad and the theatres so busy that they were always running out.

My sister got married in 1942 and she had a one tier wedding cake made out of chocolate. I was 12 at the time and I remember being very put out that she wouldn't have me as a bridesmaid. She chose my cousin instead. I was not happy about that at all.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jacci Phillips of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Jean Smallwood and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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