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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Bill Ross of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Pat Blanchard, and has been added to the site with the author’s permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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Although living in Sheffield now, I was born in Hull and was aged three years when the war broke out. My main recollection was going into the air raid shelters at night. When the bombs fell, I remember that my little dog was so scared that he would climb into bed with me.
All the windows in the house were blown out.

I used to collect matchboxes from the pub. I remember meeting some Americans; they gave me a pencil and a comb. I gave the comb to my brother who turned it into a mouth organ by attaching a piece of paper to it. I kept the pencil myself and I scraped all the paint from it.

My father was a fire engine driver. One day, he stopped to pick up a woman, an act that saved his life. Had he not done so, he would have been at the exact spot where a bomb landed, at the time it landed.

I was evacuated to Bingley where I lived in a cottage with my mother and brothers. Then we moved to Bridlington where my dad joined the fire service.

PR-BR

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