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1st part of my story

Mrs Ellen Smithers (nee Aldis)

Memories of World War 2

I was eleven years old when the Second World War started.

I will never forget those words from the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlaine. He said England was at war with Germany. This announcement was broadcast through our wireless set at 11o/clock on 3rd Sept 1939.

After this announcement it seemed to me that everyone started rushing around. My sister Alex who was 13 years old had taken my brother Nobby (Albert) who was 10 years old to Rozenblatts the Jewish bakers shop for crusty bread in St Lenards Road, just off East India Dock Road, although my mother had sent my sister for the bread, she had not realised that she had taken our brother Nobby with her.
I remember my Father (Albert) rushing off to bring them back home, apparently there was a false alarm air raid. Everyone had been told that as soon as they heard the air raid they were suppose to go down into the nearest shelter. Wardens and police were trying to get my sister go down into one, but she refused saying she had to get home. My Father eventually caught up with them in Robin Hood Lane, which was beside the Blackwell Tunnel and about five minutes from home.

We lived at No 1 Navel Row, Poplar, London E.14. My family consisted of
Mum-Annie Norah Florence Aldis (nee Coombes, born 8th January 1904)
Dad- Albert Edward Aldis Born 7th June 1904
Sister - Alexandra Rose Mary Aldis, Born 30th June 1926
Me — Ellen Elizabeth Aldis, Born 13th June 1928
Brother Albert Edward Aldis (called him Nobby) Born 24th October 1929
We lived very close to the Blackwall Tunnel, in a set of 6 Semi detached houses in Navel Road (we called it the alley) they were 3 storey with 2 large rooms on each floor. We had long back gardens, with outside toilets.
My Dad was the (eldest of 11 how many) some members of his family occupied the first four houses in Navel Road.
My Mother’s Brother Uncle Jerry Coombes and his wife Aunt Mary and my cousin Marie lived upstairs in our house.
No 2 Navel Row was occupied by Dad’s Aunt Uncle Sid Aldis and his cousin Lilly
No 3 Navel Row was occupied by My Dad’s Mother Granny (Ellen) Granddad (Albert) Aldis, together with my Dad’s brother George Aldis and my Grandmothers sister Sarah Wells
No 4 Navel Row was occupied by my Dad’s sister Aunt Rose and her husband Uncle George and my cousins Margy and Ernie Dickens.
The rest of Dads family that I can remember were;-
Aunt Sarah and Uncle Arch Clark lived in the next street to us with my cousin Rose.
Uncle Harry and Aunt Ada Aldis and my cousin Lilliy, not sure where they lived.
Uncle Bill, Aunt Jean Aldis with my cousin Bobby, in Popular
Uncle Ted, Aunt Grace Aldis with my cousin Gracie, in Poplar High street but moved to Scotland after the war
Uncle John, Aunt Nell Aldis with my cousin Sylvia, lived around the corner from us.
My Fathers brother Uncle Ern (Ernest) owned a wood yard, he had a paralysed arm so could not join up. My Aunt Sal and my Uncle George also worked in the wood yard. I used to love to go there when ever I could to help with the chopping of wood for kindling. They would sell the wood all around the streets of Popular from their horse and cart that they kept in the wood yard. During the pre-wars years I was only allowed to go to school for a limited time as I had to attend the Great Ormond Street hospital very often, the rest of the time I was suppose to be resting. But with such a large family around there was always something to do or someone to visit or run errands for, especially for my Granny Aldis, as she had very bad ulcerated legs.
Uncle Joe, Aunt Nell (Ellen) Shields (Dads sister) with my cousins Joannie, Johnny lived in Mill Wall as he owned a canning factory. Uncle Joe’s first wife had died who he had two children by, they were Lesley, Joey. Uncle Joe was injured during the war, his son Lesley was home on leave from the Navy, they were walking in Poplar when an air raid sounded they did not have time to get down a shelter before a bomb was dropped. The bomb landed and Uncle Joe put his hand up to shield his face and the bomb blast blew three middle fingers off. He was taken to the near by All Saints Church Poplar into the crypt, where the nuns looked after him until after the air raid had passed and he could be taken to hospital. The nuns also cleaned Lesley’s Naval uniform as he had to return to his ship that evening. My Uncle Joe was also a sign writer for his factory, I remember he then had to learn to hold the brush with his thumb and little finger, he continued to sign write.

Only one bother of my Mother’s lived around us, well upstairs actually the rest as I can remember were-;
My Granddad George and Granny Annie Coombes lived 136 West Ferry Road Mill Wall with my Aunt Rene, who incidentally is only 2 years older than my sister. Therefore My Grandmother and my Mother were pregnant at the same time, which seemed to happen in those days quite a lot as my Dad’s generation seemed to have very large families.
Mum’s bother Uncle Pat and Aunt Eva Coombes and my cousin June, don’t know where they lived, Uncle Pat was in the Army during the war.
Mum’s bother Uncle Tom, Aunt Eva Coombes and my cousins Tom, Barbara, Doreen and Brian lived in Cubitt Town Mill Wall, Uncle Tom was in the Navy during the war.
Mum’s sister Aunt Liz and her husband Uncle Walter (Wal) Gladwell, lived in Millwall, Uncle Jerry who lived above us was what they call a lighterman on the boats in the docks, ironically he could not swim a stroke.

At the end of the alley there was a large detached house, where two gentlemen lived, they never mixed with anyone and were very secretive. The side door of their house was in the alley, which we had to pass to get to our houses. There was a cellar with a metal grating, which was just below street level and most times when we passed we would hear very strange noises, such as keys rattling and tap tapping, which were learnt later was similar to a code machine noise. We were frightened to pass this grating and would run pass very quickly. This house had a long back garden with a high brick wall, which ran the length of the alley. Our front gardens faced this wall.

On 30th/31st August 1940, while we children were playing in the garden, there were many German planes flying overhead. We witnessed my Father, his brothers and others shouting over the wall to the two men in the Big House, to turn off their torches, as they were shinning very powerful torches into the sky. The planes wrote 7th in the sky.

On the following Saturday 7th September, was the first heavy bombing of the London Docks.

As we lived so very close to the East India Docks. My Father and a number of his brothers all had jobs in the docks.

We had two Anderson Shelters in our garden. These were a galvanised building with arched tops. They had to bolted together. My Father built our one, My Uncle Jerry built one for his wife and daughter. The parts for these shelters were delivered by the government before the war started.
When the bombing of London started we would then use these shelters, if the alarm sounded during the night we would get up and go down the shelters. After a while we just went down the shelter to sleep at night.
My Father had built us bunk beds. We had narrow mattresses to fit the beds, they were quite comfortable. We had a Primus-stove to make our cocoa. We played games. However we could not see very well. There were blackout curtains everywhere. Even our torch was three parts blacked out but we did not seem to mind, there were others worse off than us.
My sister, myself and brother were due to be evacuated along with loads of other children. Many had already gone out of London. We were already to leave. Clothes labelled everything packed, ready to assemble at the school. I though about leaving my Mum and Dad and told them I did not want to go. So my Dad said that was OK and that we would all stay home together. None of my cousins were evacuated.
Some evacuees came back after the war to their homes destroyed by bombs. They sometimes had also lost either or both parents.

As well as working in the docks during the day, my father along with every other available man had to help out at night or whenever there was an air raid.
So the men could be up all night and then have to work all day, they got very little sleep.

From then on we could not attend Woolmore Street School, in the East India Dock Road, as all the teachers had been evacuated along with the children. Later on my school was destroyed in the bombing.
During very heavy bombing by the Germans on 7th Sept 1940, at 5pm my house was hit, luckily for us it was a timed incendiary bomb, which did not explode straight away. This gave us time to collect some processions before the bomb exploded. It exploded at 8pm. We later discovered that this bomb had blown a crater from our garden at no 1 to number 3, which was my granny’s house.

We then had to find alternative shelter, so we had to go to the communal shelter, which was a warehouse, in Blackwall Way, which was a public shelter, below Hays Wharf. This was a warehouse used to store animal feed stuff to feed the brewers horses. Whilst we, Mum, Dad my sister, brother and myself were hurrying to the communal shelter the German-bomber planes were flying so low, they were machine gunning the surrounding buildings. We had at times to dive into shop doorways for shelter from this machine gunning, the sound of breaking glass accompanied us all the way along the streets.
I can see us now, our belongings such as they were wrapped in our mattresses running hell for leather down the street being shot at.

Our new home as you might say was very deep underground. We were allowed to go upstairs if there were no air raids. There was about 5,000 or more people in this shelter. All lived ate, slept, played listened to the radio for 10 days. We were allowed out to get a breath of fresh air, if there was not an air raid going on. The devastation was enormous, the German bombers had really given London a bashing. Unfortunately during one of the bombing raids on the 17th September, the bombers dropped thousands of Incendiary Bombs, setting every where on fire, one of these fell on our shelter.

We were instructed by the APR wardens to leave the shelter slowly. When we did eventually reach the streets, it seemed to me that the whole of London was on fire, everywhere you looked everything was blazing. The Fire brigade were pumping water from the Thames. People were rushing around trying to find somewhere to sleep. Strangely enough there did not seem to be too much noise. Of course as with every time before when we came out of the shelter after a raid we were treading over dead people, some of these people my parents had know. I remember there was no panic just effort to find loved ones and or find shelter. Of course at this point we had no knowledge about the rest of our family.

My Dad knew the owner of the Queens public house the White Hart, on the corner of Popular High Street. My sister Alex had always been friends with their daughter Betty.
Mr and Mrs Levy were very kind and took us in, we all got on very well. We all had to sleep in the cellar, there was about 12 little beds down there. I remember Mrs Levey was a very good cook. After being in the communal shelter it was like being in the Ritz. To be able to have a hot bath was really great.

My uncle Archie and Aunt Sarah (who was 5 months pregnant at the time) had already sent their children down to Compton in Berkshire to be with relatives. On a visit to this village the relative had shown Aunt Sarah an empty cottage. It was decided that Granny and Granddad along with Aunt Sarah’s Rosie would go down to this cottage in a taxi and that Uncle Arch and Aunt Sarah would follow on the following day with what furniture they had managed to salvage from the bombing.

It was then decided that we would join them. So with what was left of their furniture, after the bomb had exploded and our mega processions, we made the long journey to Berkshire.

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