大象传媒

I was born in 1930 in Liverpool to an Irish mother and father who fought most of their lives- they were called the the Fighting Gradys. During the war my father used to leave us overnight. He worked at Birkenhead docks during the day and in order to make sure he got some sleep (and make sure he wasn't killed) at night he'd take a bedroll and go to one of the railway stations and sleep on the platform. At home we had an air-raid shelter at the bottom of the back yard and it was for us and the family next door. There was my mother, my brother and myself and I had 2 brothers in the services - one in the Irish Guards and the oter in the Royal Engineers. My eldest brother was exempt - he worked at Cammell Laird shipyard. He actually gave Gracie Fields a lift one night through the Mersey Tunnel because her car had broken down.
In the shelter there'd be about a dozen people and we'd sit on a bench with cold damp condensation from the walls. It had a flat concrete roof.
Because my mother was slightly disabled I always prayed that if a bomb dropped nearby I would be able to carry her out of the shelter- because I loved her. She'd always sit there saying the rosary praying for her sons that were away and for all of us in our family. One night 5 doors from where we lived - on the same road- the germans dropped an aerial torpedo. The effect of these were horrific- the bomb would bury itself in the ground but then blow everything up around it. 12 people were killed and there was one man - the father- whose body was blown up on to the roof. My brother helped the ARP bring the body down.
My mother and I were in the Sacred Heart Church one night and the priest said there was an aerial mine coming down - and we could either stay or go home. We went home and we saw the mine dropping down from the sky on its parachute- and when it landed it blew up half a dozen shops in Prescott St.
All our family survived the war and I am grateful for that - and to this day I hate war- I hate everything about it. It makes me very angry to think that nobody has learnt from the wars that have happened in the past - including ww2- and the current conflict in Iraq. It really hurts me to see on tv and in the news people are still being killed and maimed- and for what?

This story has been submitted to the Peoples War website by Rupert Creed for GMR Action Desk on behalf of Winifred Grady and has been added to the site with her permission. The author is fully aware of the site's terms and conditions

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