大象传媒

My experiences as a nine year old from 1939 to 1945
By laughingRupert

Part Two My experiences as a nine year old from 1939 to 1945. In Birmingham.

Time and dates are very vague to me now but the memories of the bombing and evacuation are not. One of the first things that comes to mind is the rationing of food and clothes etc. and then the delivery of the Anderson shelters, It brings back the memories of helping my Father and brothers dig the large hole to assemble the shelter in, then to cover it over with earth and turfs he then built a shelter around the entrance with a wall built of sand bags in front to protect us from the blast from the exploding bombs. He also put a water proof cover in front to keep out the inclement weather, with wooden steps to get down inside.
Also it was built on a steel angle frame on a concrete floor with a deep sump to bale out the water which ingress into the shelter. My father then built a nine inch brick wall around the inside to prevent the sides caving in from the blast and vibration from the bombs when they dropped near by. We also had two bunk beds either side to rest on, which for any one who has been through an air raid would find this impossible. My mother used to keep a large tin with all our important papers inside ready to grab, together with a torch, candles and matches for when the sirens sounded. It was then the sick feeling came over us with butter flies in the stomach and the feeling will our name be on the next bomb that the 鈥淕erries鈥� dropped. My Dad always used to stand outside the shelter until they got too close before coming inside, if my memory serves me right we used to call the alert 鈥淢oaning Minny鈥�, and the all clear the 鈥淏ull鈥�.
He would try to cheer us up by telling us you don鈥檛 hear the one that gets you, I might add it was no consolation, but what a feeling of joy and relief when that beautiful sound of the All Clear came, and we could get out of the shelter into the open air away from the stench of sweat and fear. What did not help was my Dad was badly wounded in the First World War, and used to stand outside because he could not stand to be in a dugout for obvious reasons, until the bombs got too close for comfort.

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