大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Nona Dougherty of the GMR Action Desk on behalf of John David Lappin, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was born in January 1937 in Middleton and I believe the war years were a very exciting time for young boys.

Dad joined the Royal Marines in 1940 and I can just remember him coming home on his first leave complete with full pack and rifle in case the expected invasion happened.

He had spent so much time and effort polisjing his parade boots that at home he put them on a cushion and I was forbidden to touch them. I do not think he ever wore them except on the parade square.

One day he took us to Manchester and saw another marine who was wearing his lanyard on a different shoulder to him. He promptly switched his over, then saw the other marine also switching his to the shoulder where my Dad had his! I wonder who was right!

We had a brick built air raid shelter built by the Council in the garden, which had a thick concrete roof and a square of bricks on the back wall held in place by a weak mix of sand/cement. This was a way of escape in case the doorway was blocked by house rubble. I believe there is still a shelter on the estate.

It was very exciting during the autumn bombing of Manchester standing in the shelter doorway watching search lights, shell bursts and "flaming onions", i.e. clusters of flares dropping from bombers. and hearing the big guns firing at Broadhurst Park, Moston, only about 2 miles away. During the day we could see the barrage balloons flying at various heights to try and stop low flying bombers.

Up to early 1941, I, a four year old, had probably seen more enemy action than my Dad who spent the first few months of his service training in Wales, based near Barmouth. They did not know there was a war on in that part of Wales!

Early in the war, my Mother and I made many trips to the shelter at night. As soon as the siren went she would wake me up and as we left the house, she picked up a basket containing candles, matches, a bottle of water, some food and an old eiderdown. Some nights we would spend hours and some times only a short time, depending on the length of the raid or whether it was a false alarm. The warning siren noise had a different sound to the one that indicated the raid was over. The longer the war progressed there were fewer raids and more nights of uninterrupted sleep.

It was a family tradition that all my Mother's side of the family celebrated Christmas at my Uncle Charlie's who lived in New Park Road, Salford, virtually opposite Salford Docks Main Gate. We stayed all over Xmas - that is, except Xmas 1940, because during the blitz which took place then, an unexploded land mine picked on that road to land, and my uncle and aunty had to move out until it was made safe. Because nobody had phones then, the first my Mother and I knew what had happened was when my Uncle Frank arrived in Middleton with one of my Xmas presents [which had been delivered by Father Christmas early!] so that I would not be disappointed on Christmas Day as my Mother had taken all my presents to uncle Charlie's early on in December. Due to all the damage he had virtually walked all the way from Salford! I will never forget that present, it was a large fire engine which, when it hit, say, the skirting board, the ladder extended automatically. After Christmas we managed to go to Salford and tried to forget what had happened.

I can still remember seeing all the fire hoses cross crossing the roads starting from around Thompson Street and Rochdale Road near what was then a very large railway goods yard, to where we caught the tram on Deansgate. The damage from Shudehill to Market Street was terrible and I can still smell the smoke and that funny smell of wet burnt wood and dust.

When I started school we all had to take our gas masks. Mine was in the standard cloth covered cardboard box, much to my disgust, as most of my school mates had theirs in a cylindrical metal case and they were able to fight each other with them by swinging them like conker fighting! Every day the teacher checked that we all had our gas masks which we kept by our desks and at regular intervals we had an air raid drill, sometimes it was for real! If the alarm went, we all had to line up and hurry to one of the large shelters in the school yard and there we sat on long benches around the walls and put on our gas masks. The lads soon found out that if you blew out your breath, it forced itself out through the sides and as gas masks were made of rubber, you could make a very rude noise, the teacher was not amused!!

One thing I can still vividly remember was the blackout. In our house my Mother not only had curtains at the windows but also at night, put up black material. The light shades on the ceiling lights were also draped with black material, something like they have on lights over a snooker table. She also had a curtain behind the outside doors, this was drawn across before the door was opened. This way no light could be seen on the outside if the house. One night a warden knocked on the door and accused her of showing a light. My Mother blew her top and showed him all her precautions and proved it was not from our house that he had seen a light.

It must be very hard for people who were not around in those days to visualise how dark it was in the winter. No lights from ships or houses, no street lights. It was 1945/46 before I can remember our street lamps being lit. What a long awaited thrill that was! All the torches had most of the glass blocked off with a card and a small hole cut out to allow only a thin beam of light and all car lights were masked. Aly obstacles such as trees, lamp posts, kerbs had white lines painted on them to help you see them in the dark. We used to dread clear nights with a full moon, because although it helped you to see in the dark it also brought the bombers.

Who also can forget double summer time not 1 hour forward, but 2 hours, i.e. going to school at 8.30 am but it was really 6.30 am and going to bed at 8.00 pm when it was really only 6.00 pm. In mid summer it was still light at midnight, all just to save energy and to enable the farmers to work later in the fields.
Story continues in Part 2.

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