大象传媒

WORLD WAR II

Audrey Lacy (nee Patmore)

A CHILD鈥橲 WAR

The outbreak of War

When war was declared on 3rd September 1939 I was 71/2 years old and my sister was within a few days of her sixth birthday. We lived with our parents in a terraced Edwardian house in Walthamstow on North East edge of London. Epping Forest was at the top of our road. Our paternal grandparents and aunt lived in the next road.

Preparation for War

Civilian adults were expected to do an extra job in their spare time 鈥� some were Air Raid Wardens, others did Firewatching duty several nights each week or worked at their local First Aid Post, as my father did, or were on Heavy or light Rescue teams. Even if you had been working all night, you were still expected to be at your usual job the next day. Blackout was declared which meant no more street lights (my mother walked into a lamp-post in the dark and broke her nose). Vehicle lights were reduced to a slit and we all had to blackout our windows after dark either with thick black material or a fitted board which my father made to fit our bathroom window. Anti-aircraft guns and big silver balloons we called 鈥榩igs鈥� appeared on open ground eg. Wanstead Flats. Railway station names and direction signs disappeared, so that if the Germans invaded, they would not know where they were 鈥� neither did we, at times, in strange places! Loud sirens were put up to tell us when there was an air-raid and we were then expected to take cover 鈥� I still have a momentary feeling of fear if I hear one. At the end of a raid the 鈥楢ll Clear鈥� was sounded and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Anderson and Morrison (table) shelters were issued, and brick shelters built in some streets. Anderson shelters were long curved pieces of corrugated metal which had to be dug into the garden but were very cold and tended to be very wet inside. Morrison table shelters were meant for indoor use 鈥� a large metal table with angle-iron legs and four removable metal mesh sides. Ours took up all the space in our sitting room and in addition, my father shored up the room with large new timbers bolted together and built a blast wall outside the French windows. All glass in windows and doors was covered in a mesh of brown paper strips and the adhesive tasted horrid!

Air Raids

If you were in the street when the siren sounded, an Air Raid Warden would send you into the nearest brick street shelter. They had no windows so were dark and being only one brick thick, we felt vulnerable in them and would rather have run home. Londoners began to sleep in the Underground stations every night and the platforms were so full of people on their makeshift beds that there was hardly room to get on and off the trains.

After a particularly noisy night with bombing nearby we would search for shrapnel in our back garden. Once we found a piece which was literally too hot to handle so we had to wait until the following day before we could take it to school to show our friends. If a bomb fell with a dull thud we would be glad and know that it had dropped in Epping Forest and look for it on our walks.

One house near us was bombed and local children quickly visited the site to pick up beautiful little pieces of tesserae in vivid colours 鈥� I filled my pockets with azure blue ones but felt guilty about it for a long time.

Evacuation and Schooling

My sister and I were evacuated with our teachers to Bedford at the outbreak of war and several times subsequently, as we returned home each time there was a lull in the bombing. We also went to Caerleon, South Wales and Four Marks, Hampshire, the latter with our Mother. This was between 1939 and 1943 and meant that we had no proper schooling during this time. We were supposed to use schools on a 50/50 basis with the local children, but this never really materialised.

When I was 10 years of age, I returned home to the local junior school to try to catch up on the schooling I had missed. We found parallel bars left behind by firemen in the back of our open shed in the school playground and began to play on them. We enjoyed it so much that a small group of us decided to work out a routine and put on a show for our friends, charging 1d each, the money going to the Red Cross Penny a week fund to help the war effort. Of course, when our teachers discovered what we were doing, the parallel bars disappeared straight away!

Rationing

Food was rationed, different items being added at different times, although I do not remember bread being rationed 鈥� my Mother often sent me to buy a 鈥渓arge white split tin鈥� for 8d. Everyone had a ration book full of squared pages, one square per week per item of food. These coupons were dated and were cut out by the shopkeeper as you bought your food. Food portions were small 鈥� 10d worth of meat, 2d worth of corned beef, 2oz cheese per person per week. Two of us became vegetarians, receiving 12oz cheese each per week but no meat, corned beef or bacon. Fortunately, my father grew vegetables on his allotment, as many did. We only had 2 oz of sweets per week and very little choice anyway ( I remember sherbet lemons and toffee crunch). The ration eventually rose to 3 oz per week, so we were served with 2oz one week and 4 oz the next. I saw no oranges until well after the war was over although my mother was occasionally able to buy sticky dried bananas which we really enjoyed. Clothes and footwear also required 鈥榗oupons鈥� which was a problem with children鈥檚 growing feet.

鈥淒oodlebugs鈥� and Rockets

After summer 1943 we finally returned home and I went to our local High School. VI鈥檚 (doodlebugs) began to fall and we eventually became rather blas茅; there were so many of them. As long as flames and noise were present, we knew they would pass over us; if they cut out we knew they were about to crash and we quickly got down on the ground, hoping to avoid the blast. They were followed by V2鈥檚 (rockets) which were so fast that I never saw one, but we could do nothing about them so just carried on and hoped they would avoid us.

After the War

After six long eventful years the war was over in 1945 and I was 13years old. My father dismantled the Morrison table and used the top as the back of his shed. Two angle-iron legs provided the support for an ex-Naval hammock in our garden. The authorities did call to collect the Morrison table but decided to leave it where it was!

Food was rationed for a long time (still rationed in 1951). We were short of many things, especially houses, but grateful to be alive and knew we were so much better off than much of Europe. 鈥楿tility鈥� furniture was made 鈥� very simple, plain styles in light wood. The 鈥楴ew Look鈥� came out with perfumes and long elegant skirts. The lights came on again and London seemed like fairyland after dark.

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