大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site By Nona Dougherty of the GMR Action Desk on behalf of Veronica Trick nee Walker and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

I was 3 when was ended so apart from shuddery feelings associated with air raid sirens [dread and anxiety] and felt very frightening as a child. I lived in Blackburn where cotton workers were summoned into work by a very similar sound. After the war I still got feelings of dread at hearing that similar sound. Apparently in Blackburn about a dozen bombs were jetisoned and one just missed the house! I remember very vividly a bus jounrey into Manchester. It seemed as though every building had been flattened!

My parents got married in 1941 and they remember incendiary bombs landing in the back garden. They moved to Preston and when heavily pregnant with me, one of the jobs she was assigned to as a civilian, in the case of an airaid followed by a fire, was to unroll a fire hose between her legs! She was worried it would affect the birth, but it didn't! She was given a special box for me [to put babies in] and she had to operate the air with a foot pump. She was worried if she got knocked out - who would do it!

I remember my gas mask - it was a "Mickey Mouse" one and when you breathed out the tongue used to vibrate - and the chemical smell!!

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