大象传媒

SECOND WORLD WAR

I was born in 1938 so I was very fortunate not to have realised the enormity of what was going on during the Second World War. My Father was in the Army and my Brother and I were at home with my Mother in Sparrow Farm Road, Stoneleigh, for the duration of the war.

As a result of having to go into an outside air-raid shelter during the night-time I became very ill with pneumonia and suffered badly from asthma. We had a shelter fitted indoors in our front room and we slept in a bed underneath this. During the night the planes came over and we heard the bombs dropping. My Mother used to hold our hands as the planes went over and I can especially remember the flying bombs when the engines cut out. We all stayed very still not even daring to breathe listening to the sound of the engine and then it would cut out and the bomb would just fall out of the sky. We would then hear an explosion. We were told that if we could hear the engine rumble as it went overhead, we were safe at least from that particular bomb.

We often found pieces of shrapnel in the garden. These were not to be touched and had to be reported immediately to the Air Raid Warden.

Several houses around us were bombed and I can remember noticing how overgrown the gardens became. One house had yellow roses and these were all entwined with weeds and grass. I don鈥檛 remember looking at the bombed houses themselves - perhaps because I was small I just saw the gardens.

I can vividly remember being in our kitchen and my Mother crying and hugging us tightly together and saying that we had to stay together. This must have been at the time children were being evacuated.

It was quite normal for all the children to play outside in the road at that time. We would see planes flying over and someone would say 鈥淚t鈥檚 alright it鈥檚 one of ours鈥� and we would carry on with our game. Nobody ever disputed the statements that were made. Some of the children had been instructed to go home if they heard a plane but most of us just carried on playing. We had only known this way of living so were not frightened.

When I reached School age we were taught how to get our gas masks on. This was dreadful for me because of my asthma. I used to absolutely panic when we had to have our gas masks fitted. Someone would pull the rubbery mask over my face and this seemed to cut off my ability to breathe. I was so frightened.

No food could ever be wasted, not even potato peelings. Situated in our road was a 鈥減ig bin鈥� where all uneaten food had to be deposited. My Mother used to send my Brother and I down to this pig bin if we had any potato peelings to throw away. The smell coming from the bin was appalling. I don鈥檛 know how often it was emptied.

I can remember my Mother saying that people were having to give up their garden railings so they could be melted down and made into something useful.

Janet Killner
8 June 2004

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