大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Margaret Walsh of The Royal Star and Garter Home on behalf of John Barella and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

The town where I lived - Sunderland - was famous for shipbuilding. This was probably the main reason why Sunderland was targeted for bombing.
We would go to bed normally. In the early hours of the morning we would be woken up by the siren which meant that there would be enemy aircraft over the area and there would be bombs dropping in a short time. So everyone had to hurry along and get into the air raid shelter. There were bench seats where everyone could sit around. Everyone was dressed in dressing gowns and pyjamas. Then you would hear the bombs dropping and going off. After maybe 3 or 4 hours or so the all clear siren would go. It would be all clear to come out of your shelter and go back home.
It was OK in the air raid shelter because there was a lot of people. You would sing songs.
You would see sometimes what damage the bombs had done. Some houses were demolished. You would have known the people who had lived in the house which had been flattened by the bomb.

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