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These memories were put onto the site by the action desk at 大象传媒 Radio Derby, with permission from Dorothy Wicks I was 10years of age when war was declared. I lived at Sunnyhill with my mother, father and sister age 6. My father was an electrician so didn't have to go to war as he was in a "Reserved Occupation". He joined the Home Gaurd to "do his bit". The sunday morning when the news was announced at 11am was a very exciting time for us children. The men collected spades and walked a mile to dig Air Raid Shelters and the ladies made pots of tea.
We were issued with Gas Masks and Ration Books, a weeks ration filled a tea plate, sugar, butter, bacon and meat plus 1 egg a week.One tin of beans or soup every 2 weeks, bread and sweets rationed. If we went to school without our Gas Masks we were sent home, everyone had to carry them everywhere. Our school was 2 miles away so it was no joke running home and back to school, so we never forgot them.
A lot of time was spent in the Air Raid Shelters as the German Bombers were always over Derby looking for Rolls Royce, this was made very difficult as a huge field had been painted on the top of the factory to confuse the bombers.
In June 1940 expeditionary forces went into Fravce, this was known as 'DUNKIRK', uor men and other Allie's had to retreat for their lives, 300,000 men were rescued from French Ports by any boat or anything that would float. Tiny fishing boats, Yachts, Navy Boats they all went to rescue our lads who had been driven by the Germans onto the beaches at Dunkirk. This battle wasn't by we at home because everywhere there were posters. BE LIKE DAD KEEP MUM, CARLESS TALK COSTS LIVES, IS YOUR JOURNEY REALLY NECESSARY? So- the first we know of Dunkirk was when at midnight 1940 there was thunderous knocking on our front door. My mother and father ran down to the front door and my sister and I leaned over the bannister an Army Officer said "How many bedrooms have you got?" my mother said The girls have their own rooms. "Double them up" he snapped "I want a bed for these lads". Two shapes came into our hall covered in torn uniforms and blood. We found out later they had come straight from Dunkirk on a tiny boat, unloaded at Dover then a lorry load of soldiers were brought to Sunnyhill to be billeted with private housewives. Our two soldiers stayed with us for 2 years and they had gun shot wounds in legs, trunk and arms, they attended D.R.I until they were better but they still never let them go to their own homes.
My uncle was a Fireman in the London Blitz, he said they had no fear of the bombing but he didn't like the "Morrison Shelters" which were like big steel cages and when the sirens went the family would sit in these big steel contraptions, which were open at each end but had big steel roofs on them. People were killed b;y the blast and whole families were sitting in them as though they were still alive but they had been killed in fact, just like the waxworks they sat. When the Germans came over the coast, Barrage Balloons would go up into the sky to stop the Bombers coming in land and the cry would go up, "Balloons have gone up take care". To this day I still use the expression, "Youwatch it the balloon has gone up", when my 4year old grandson goes home he say's to his younger brother, "You just watch it or the balloon will go up". His dad say's Hugh has been to Nanna dot's.
The main L.M.S. Railway ran at the bottom of my mothers garden and the road ran up the side of it over a railway bridge. When it was a full moon my mother would say "It's a bombers moon Gerry will be bombing".The bombers would follow the glint of the railway line to bomb the trains.
There were many nights when the train would grind to a halt always a goods train and the engine driver would cover the engine over and hide the engine under the railway bridge covering it with tarpauline because of it glinting. Sometimes when the air raids were very heavy they would be there 2 days and nights then my mother would find something to put into sandwhiches and fill a white jug with tea and send me down the railway to give to the men driving the train. Remember all food was rationed so they could not go and buy food.
A few years asgo my husband andI were in a Beach Hut and in the ajoining one were two couples, "where do you come from" they asked. "Derby" said I. "Oh, we've got happy memories of 'Durbi' we were drivers of the L.M.S. trains during the war and we drove trains full of bombs, enough bombs to blow up the whole of Derby, so we had to camaflauge the engine so that Gerry wouldn't bomb us, there was a lanky kid at the first house would bring us sandwhiches and a jug of tea, never see a big white jug without thinking of that kid". Couldn't believe the two things, first they remembered me and second we wouldn't have slept if we had known all those bombs. "I can prove it" said I, "every time you went past my mothers house you gave a blast on your whistle chooya chooya choo a choo choo." Don't know which of us was more amazed.
I would go to see my Aunt at Burton on Trent and was amazed to see all these fat ladies as every one was very skinny cos' of rationing, found out they were pregnant ladies from the Blitz, they weresent to Burton on Trent to have their babies at Derby Nightingale Home then when their babies were 4 weeks old they were sent back to the bombing and the blitz.
A stich of unexploded bombs were dropped the other side of the railway line at the farm and my mother walked in pitch blackness to bring the farms children and we all slept lengthwaysin my bed with our feet hanging out of the end of the bed.
I can still smell the smell of the smoke screens, they were big aluminium cannisters as big as the wheely bin and when they were lit foul smelling smoke would fill the area around it and block all the lights out. Although we had air raid wardens who would go around streets checking for lights, we had heavy black out curtains which would help to block out the house lights
In 1944 Doodlebugs were introduced by the Germans. These were simple jet engines which when the fuel ran out they would drop like a stone and explode on impact with the ground.
The war taught me to be kind and considerate to your fellow men and that is why I do so muchcharity work. I will not have waste, I find it very difficult to this day to throw anything away that I can find a use for even down to the smallest piece of string. It was instilled in you "Waste not want not".
Our planes had a constant throb. The German planes had an intermitant sound and our dog would hear the German planes and her ears would open and her fur would rise and she would howl.
At Ashe Hall in Etwall they made a hospital for wounded men and they wore Royal Blue Tops and trousers they would come ina abus to the Plaza Tea dances on the spot in Derby and it wasn't unusual to dance with men with fingers burnt off and R.A.F. men with badly burnt faces, I never found them repulsive, they had fought to keep me free.

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