大象传媒

I awoke as soon as the siren started its wailing sound, there was no feeling of fear, just a feeling of privilege at being allowed to get up during the night - I didn't need to wait for the crescendo of the siren, I knew what was expected of me. The bedroom was not absolutely dark but it wouldn't have made any difference, I was well practiced at sliding my legs out of bed and first slipping my feet into my slippers followed by shuffling towards the bottom bed rail where my dressing gown would be in position. I didn't know what time it was - in fact I didn't know the year, my birth date was 20th June 1937, and with my parents I lived at Stanningley so it had to be some time in the 1940's when Leeds or Bradford, or both, became the target of the Luftwaffe. Within the next couple of minutes my father would appear and after wrapping me in a blanket take me out of the house to the shared air raid shelter next door. My mother would already be in the shelter with our neighbours. I suppose there had been times when I had cried at the sound of the explosions so our neighbour would sit me on his knee and try to entertain me sometimes using a pocket handkerchief to make shapes of animals, or just read stories to me. Eventually the 'all clear' would sound and so it was back to bed until the next episode the following evening.

How long this went on for I have no idea - it could have been days, weeks or years, to a child of my age it was just normal life. I don't suppose I really cared as long as I was able to visit the local shop once a week and exchange my ration coupons for sweets or chocolate if they were available. My first school was only a few minitues walk away with Mum but as I became able to see myself home I was frequently warned not to pick up any items in the street in case they were incendary devices. It was rumoured that the enemy were dropping them disguised as pens or pencils, I doubt if this was true but I never got the opportunity to test it as I never found anything apart from a practice hand grenade at the back of the parachute regiment barracks. This did cause some consternation to my parents when I sauntered into the kitchen and placed it on the table. (or perhaps panic would better describe their reaction) I remember Sundays when I would accompany my Father to Grandmas house about a mile down the road, in a large garage nearby was the family car which had been laid up due to fuel rationing, also in the garage was the fuselage of his Tiger Moth aircraft, the wings were sheeted up and attached to the side of the building outside. I recently passed by Grandmas old house on a visit to Dawsons Corner at Pudsey, but where I had once gone to see one of our crippled bombers which had crashed in the fields opposite there is now the Leeds outer ring road.

In 1947 my parents decided to move to the Selby area where they became engaged in the grocery business. I did spend a lot of time watching lots of tanks and other military vehicles passing through Selby to be stored on one of the local airfields prior to their disposal as the war ended. In the Selby area many prisoners had been billeted at a local camp and they were eventualy allowed to shop in the town before their final repatriation, and it was on one occasion that one of them saw me in my Father's shop and mentioned that he had a son called Hans in Germany. I wrote to Hans and we have been in contact since that time, in fact recently one of his sons visited the UK and spent some time with us.

One of my hobbies in retirement is searching local farmland with my metal detector, one of the areas which I have permission to search was an RAF site in the 40's,....and you know sometimes during quieter moments when I have stopped for a short break it's very easy to imagine the sounds of the aircraft and especially the haunting wail of that siren....

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