大象传媒

This story has been added to the People's War website by the Lancashire Home Guard and is in Mr. Nutter's own words...

When the Second World War started in 1939 I was twelve years old and had just started Secondary School in Nelson. Teachers were in short supply as all the able-bodied men had been called up to fight. Their replacements were often elderly, and few and far between, but I seem to remember the class sizes were still around only 25.

Times were hard during the war. Food was rationed - butter, sugar, meat, eggs and so on. We had powdered egg, OK for baking and for scrambled egg, but you couldn't boil, fry or poach it! The only fresh fruit was grown in this country because nothing could be shipped here. If we ever had jam it was home-made, from home-grown fruit. We didn't see bananas until long after the war was over. People were encouraged to "Dig for Victory" by taking on allotments or converting their gardens from lawns and flowerbeds into vegetable patches.

During food rationing, to make sure we got all the vitamins needed by growing children, we had to take spoonfuls each morning of Cod Liver Oil, Malt Extract and Scott's Emulsion (whatever that might be). When the National Health Service was introduced after the war, each child got a weekly bottle of orange juice, which was delicious.

We had coupons for clothes, sweets and cigarettes. Even if your mum could make clothes, she had to use coupons for the material. Cigarette coupons were swapped for other things, but not many were going spare, evervone seemed to smoke: it was considered fashionable then and people didn't know about the dangers.

All windows had to be covered by black blinds or curtains so that no light was visible from outside at night. If you did have a chink of light showing an Air Raid Warden or policeman would knock on your door and tell you to cover the window. If you went out at night it was completely dark, no streetlights and no light from any of the houses.

We had to build air raid shelters in our back yards. We had an outside toilet - a 'long drop'. This was extended using local stone and had a concrete roof nine inches thick. I can't remember ever using the shelter, though, as only one bomb ever fell on this area, and that was probably a mistake.

We all had to have a gas mask in a cardboard box. You had to carry it everywhere in a little canvas shoulder bag. We had gas mask drills at school, to make sure we all had them with us and knew how to put them on quickly.

Any men not called up for the war, usually those in 'reserved occupations' such as building planes or armaments, also became Fire Wardens or Air Raid Wardens in their spare time. They spent the nights on the lookout for enemy aircraft, or checking for lights.
An evacuee, a little lad from Bradford who was about my age, came to live in the next street. Luckily we got on OK and managed to amuse ourselves.

When the war finished in 1945 I remember a street party. We all took our tables and chairs out onto the back street, and we all contributed food and drink. I remember lots of singing and everyone was relieved and happy.
I was 18 when the war ended, but there was still National Service and many of my friends got called up. Some also went down the mines - they were called Bevan Boys. I didn't do either - I failed my medical because of poor eyesight.

Alan Nutter

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