´óÏó´«Ã½

Gas masks were delivered to everyone’s house and had to be carried in a cardboard shoulder bag everywhere we went in case of a German gas attack during an air raid. All our windows had to be covered at night with heavy blackout curtains so that no light could be seen from outside to aid the German bombers and local air raid wardens were appointed to check each house to see that there were no chinks of light showing.

So I was always very frightened when I heard the air raid sirens because I knew they were a warning that German bombers were approaching. One night while my father was away in Southampton the sirens went for the first time in Salisbury, and my mother rushed into my bedroom, wrapped a blanket around me and took me down to the cupboard under the stairs which was supposed to be the safest place in case of an air raid if you didn’t have a proper shelter. We sat there until the ‘all clear’ siren went and then returned to our beds. She told me many years later about this episode, and how she had sat there with a small torch trying to read the leaflet ‘what to do if there is an air raid’, and shaking with fear. She said I was very quiet, but then suddenly asked her when we were going to die — which upset her even more, and she never forgot that moment.

Khaki netting
School carried on more or less as usual, except that we had to spend one afternoon each week threading pieces of khaki material through netting so that it could be sent off to be used as camouflage to protect our soldiers. It was explained to us that it was our contribution to the war effort but we found it difficult to understand what difference pieces of cloth on netting was going to make to us winning the war.

Sirens

Whenever the sirens sounded when I was at school, we were all drilled to walk (not run) quickly and quietly to the concrete air raid shelter outside. There we sang songs and listened to stories not knowing or worrying about what was happening outside. I always felt better when I was at school on these occasions because the teachers didn’t seem to worry as much as my mother, and even more important to me, we were very close to Salisbury Cathedral and I was convinced that Hitler would never bomb such a lovely big church, and that God wouldn’t let him anyway! Strangely enough, some time afterwards the wreckage of a German fighter plane was found on Salisbury Plain and among the pilot’s possessions they discovered a silk map with Salisbury Cathedral ringed as an important navigational point. So my conviction about God seemed to be right! I’m not sure that Hitler had much of a hand in it though.

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