大象传媒

Harry Battensby

My name is Harry Battensby and I am 86 years old. I was born and raised in Diamond Gardens, Wallsend Tyne & Wear. I was one of a family of eight children. I had two brothers and five sisters, which was a quite common size family in those days. My brothers both worked down the mines all their lives.
I worked all my life in Wallsend shipyards, North Tyneside . I worked as a piece work counter for over 40 years.
As well as working in the shipyards during World War 11, I also worked voluntarily as an air raid warden/part time fireman. Often I would finish work, have a couple of hours rest and then work all through the night pounding the streets of Tyneside ensuring people and buildings were safe during the air raids. One of my duties was to set fire to gallon drums of oil. It would release a huge black plume of smoke that filled the sky and confused the German air force. These were located along the banks of the River Tyne.
One of the largest bombings I recall was the bombing of the Willington Quay area of North Tyneside, which was severely damaged by one air raid. The intended target was the viaduct that ran nearby, but unfortunately rows of nearby houses were hit.

As told to the student鈥檚 of Churchill Community College on Friday 28th November 2003.

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