大象传媒

I was 8 years old when the war started and the youngest of five children. My eldest brother was in the regular army in India and later served in Malay where he was taken prisoner and put in Changi jail to work on the docks and later sent to work on the Burma Railway. He was one of the lucky ones who survived but would not talk of the ordeal, his memories being too painful.

My second brother was called up and served in the Royal Artillery in Burma. My eldest sister was a district midwife and delivered many babies during the Blitz, sometimes having to attend to the mother on the floor under the bed to protect her from falling debris. My younger sister was called up and worked at Blackburn's in Brough building planes. My father worked at Tarrans and was employed building billets for the troops and pigeon lofts for the messenger birds.

When the war started I was at Hall Road School and remember coming out of school and seeing the city ringed by barrage balloons, an amazing sight. Occasionally a balloon would break away from it's moorings and the hawser swinging free would damage chimneys and roofs. The army would come and shoot it down.

One late afternoon I went to Cottingham Road to buy an evening paper and was very interested when two planes came over and started firing at each other. I never thought I was in any danger until an adult sheltering in a passage shouted "get under cover you silly little b......!

In 1940 we moved to East Hull so my sister could be at home and practice midwifery. We lived there all through the Blitz and when the Blitz was at it's height we slept in the shelter. We had a dog who seemed to be able to sense trouble. Sometimes when the air-raid sirens went off she would stay in the house and other times she'd be the first in the shelter. During one heavy raid, the doors and windows were blown out and the dog ran away. The next day, a Sunday, some relatives came to help clean up. We were sitting down to tea when the dog came back, paws red raw, she must have been running all night. There were tears all round. The budgie in it's cage had a pile of soot and plaster on it's head and was chirping away.

One Saturday night following another heavy raid, one end of our street was closed because of an unexploded bomb. On the Sunday afternoon, my sisters and I went to post some letters and we were stopped and told we couldn't go down the Grove. We explained our parents were there and they said that we could go but we must stay at the back of the house. After tea the road was reopened and we went to see what had happened. A sea mine had been dropped and was stuck in the front of a house. Apparently the people who lived in the house heard a bump, opened the door and saw the parachute flapping and thought the invasion had started....luckily it didn't explode or it would've wiped out a vast area.

I went to Flinton Grove School and our classrooms were in wooden huts to the rear of the school. One morning we went and the wooden huts had been destroyed. I was sent to Maybury School and then went to Riley High School in the Boulevard so had to travel across the town in order to go to school. Regularly the centre of town was being doused down following the raids and we had to step over hoses.

Sometimes during raids the anti aircraft guns on the back of lorries were moved around to shoot at the enemy planes. We used to collect shrapnel and fins from incendary bombs as trophies. The shrapnel made big holes in our pockets. Some friends and I used to hold jumble sales to raise money for Mrs Churchills aid to Russia Fund.

One early morning Mum was on her way to the butchers and had to pass a field with a barn. She noticed there was an unexploded mine hanging through the roof so she fled the scene quickly.

My mother and eldest brother were very close and she could sense when something was wrong. When he was in India she knew and would get a letter saying that he had broken his arm or such like. When he was in Malay he was going down a road on his motorbike when a Japanese plane started machine gunning him, he was saying 'oh mum, mum!" when he came off his bike and an old lady pulled him into her dug out, saving his life.

We seemed to queue for all sorts of food, tripe from Robinson's Tripe Shop on Spring Bank, custard powder from Merrills in Hull Market, Cakes from Norfolk Street and even meat for the dog from Beverley Road. We grew our own vegetables and kept chickens and rabbits. We even had rabbit for christmas dinner.

Pots were scarce and Mum was pleased when she was able to buy 6 cups and saucers. She washed them and left them on the kitchen table to put away, before she managed to do that there was an air raid and the ceiling came down and broke all the pots.

I remember weddings being held at very short notice and at strange times, one of my cousins was married at 5pm midweek. My eldest brother came home from India on a Tuesday and asked Mum if she would like to go to a wedding the following Saturday. She asked who was getting married, he replied he was!. The wedding was arranged, dress, cake and reception all in four days.

So many memories, some happy, some sad but to a child of the time it was just a way of life. Now I am filled with admiration at how my parents coped with all the worry of having the family spread into danger and the love and thanks they gave to have us all reunited at the end of the war.

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