大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jonathan Plant of the CSV 大象传媒 Coventry and Warwickshire Action Desk on behalf of Peggy and Gerald Cleaver and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the sites' terms and conditions.

My mother was a child living in Wolverhampton during the war. She talked about Anderson Shelters, which were a way of providing shelter and protection to civillians from German bombing raids. When there was a raid a siren would sound to warn people to take cover. Most of the raids were at night, so you were expected to get out of bed and take shelter in the Anderson in the garden.
The shelters were delivered to each household before there were any actual bombings and were sheets of corrugated iron bolted togeather. Those who were able were expected to dig out a trench and erect their own shelter on top. The iron roof was covered with turf to help camoflage it. They were about four feet deep and six to eight feet long.
Although they were intended to be your own shelters, it is interesting that my mother cannot actually remember using theirs. One reason for this was because it flooded and I assume that all the neighbours in the street, which bordered a cannal, had the same problem. Since my mum's family all had to either work or were at school, there was never anybody at home to bail out the flooded shelter. Their next door neighbour, Mr Woods, was older and did not work and was was therefore able to bail out his own shelter. My mum remembers using his shelter on one occasion when there was a daylight raid. She was eleven and was playing in the neighbour's garden on a swing with his daughter. Mum remembers that they stood and watched an aeroplane flying overhead when the neighbour realised that it was an enemy bomber and shouted to the children before pushing them into the shelter. The bomber dropped bombs on the centre of Wolverhampton that day.
The shelters had no floors, just earth but some families equipped their shelters with wooden floors and benches to make them more comfortable.
If mum cannot remember using their own shelter, she is unclear about where the family did take shelter when the sirens sounded. Perhaps she hid under the table or just stayed in bed.
My mothers main memory is that the sirens continually interupted her sleep as they sounded most nights. This happened to such an extent that her own mother said she would not have agreed to her attending grammer school (where there was a lot of tiring homework!) if she'd realised there would be a blitz. She would have sent her to the local high school, which was nearer home and less hard work! Mum was the youngest child and was missing so much sleep.
My mother also recalled everyone also had their own gas masks which as a child my mother had to carry to school every day, where they also practiced wearing them. She said they were horrible things which were kept in a wooden box with string handles.

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