大象传媒

This is Chelsea Murray of Southmoor Community school, Sunderland and entering Mrs.Speights story onto the website and they fully understand the website terms and condition of use.

Mrs.Speight was 14 years old at the start of the war and had just left school. She worked as a fire watcher and if there was a fire she had to carry a bucket of water and a pump to put it out. She wanted to help in the war, she had several jobs throughout the war including shops, joining the Army Cadets and having to learn to shoot and read maps. She also worked in the Royal Infirmary three nights a week helping Nurses with bandages.
When it was pitch black everyone wore a florescent button badge and carried a torch. Mrs.Speight can remember in the blackouts not a single speck of light was allowed, if the Air rade wardens saw any they'd knock on the door saying "Get that light out!" or "Close your blackout curtains properly".
Everynight the air rade sounded and when it did you had to go to the shelters. Mrs.Speights mum used to go and get her and her younger sister out of bed saying "Air rade siren, get your coats on and we'll go down together". There were beds in the shelters. The Germands planes had a distinctive sound which everyone recongnized. Mrs.Speight would pray saying in a small whisper "Please go over, please go over". When bombs dropped you could hear whistling sounds. You woul dbe tired in the morning and you still had to go to work. If a bomb had dropped children would go out early in the next morning and pick up all the shrpnel from the bombs.
Some nights when Mrs.Speight and her friends dared they would watch the search lights in the big field near where they lived. They weren't allowed but they were young and unaware of all the dangers.
Large ballons were put up to bring down planes.
One afternoon Mrs.Speight and one of her friends were on their way back from a fun day dancing and shopping in Newcastle when they could hear German planes,they were following the train. Just as the train they were travelling on reached the bridge the Germans machine-gunned the train and everyone had to drop and lie on the floor. When they reached the station they heard the air rage siren and they had to get to a nearby shelter. She can remember her and her friend running quickly through shop door ways until they reached safety and they could come down.
Mrs.Speight lived in Pallion, in Sunderland and the Germans bombed Pallion. Luckily her house was not boombed but unfortunately a few houses nearby were and the families were killed. Mrs.Speight had a friend called Olive who passed away a few years ago and she has many happy memories of the two of them together. Olive and her mum cleaned offices in 'John Street' and sometimes she was with them. When the siren went off they had to go down to the basement and sit under a heavy table and huddle together. One night a plane was brought down and people were killed-Luckily the three of them had just arrived to Olive's home in time. Many nights they spent in the basement under heavy tables in 22 John Street.
In the time of the war Mrs.Speight sats the Health services were 'alright'. People were looked after as best as they could have been. It was the rationing that was a problem. No sweets and if you did occasionally get some it wasn't many and you had to share them. Queues were miles long. Children and adults traded food with friends. Mrs. Speight thinks the rationing did them no harm, if anything it did them good!
You had to carry your gas mask around with you all of the time. Fortunately, Mrs. Speight did not have to use hers.
All schools were closed but Mrs. Speight's younger sister, Barbera, was still at school so she was sent to the Cottage Homes to be taught there.
When the war was on you were not allowed on the beach at all in case the Germans invaded by sea. Mrs. Spegiht remembers there being barbed and stone pillar boxes with soldiers in them guarding the beach.
Mrs. Speight's grandmother's house was bombed. She lived Howarth Street, near Bridge Street. When people' homes were bombed they were taken to the vicarge. Mrs. Speight's grand parents and aunties had to live there for a short while.
Mrs. Speight was training to go in the army ready for when she was 18. She wasn`t evacuated, her father said no, if we die we all die together. Mrs. Speight's husband, Maurice, were evacuted but only for a month because he cried (see Joyce Collins' entry). Joyce, his sister, loved it, but their mother wanted them back.
When Mrs. Speight and her friend Olive went off to London a huge factory and store were bombed and everyone was bombed, no one survived and once again the two old friends were left in shock.
Mrs. Speight says that she would certainly not like to go through the experience at night, she is not sure why they went to sleep! 'Our air raid shelters were only made of brick so I don`t suppose it would have helped if we were bombed'. As many places were bombed, stalls were put up to sell things from.' Cheap houses called prefabs were built up, they still survive today.
Mrs. Speight remembers the Sunderland Echo, everynight there were photos of the men and women who had lost their lives. Dozens and dozens of men in their prime, it was very sad.
Each evening they would listen to Chamberlin on the radio, and when it was declared Britain had won, it was a relief.

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