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Submitted to The Peoples War via www.heroesofhull.co.uk
Transcribed by Alan Brigham - 20th September 2005

As a schoolchild the war was often a time of great excitement. Best of all, even though I absolutely loved going to school, was when the sirens went overnight and we got the next morning, or the whole day, off. It wasn't until the bombs fell on Hessle Road’s Boulevard that the danger of war hit home.

We lived two streets away from the Boulevard, but the land mine that fell causing so much damage and destruction still blew out ever window in our Alma Terrace home, in Marmaduke Street. Every window in the house had blown in - despite them all being taped up!

My father, Fred Hall, who was fire-watching on the roof of Warehouse 9, saw the bombs falling and ran all of the way home to make sure that we were all ok.

When we left the shelter and re-entered our homes following the all clear; to see the shards of glass stuck into the furniture, walls and all over the floor really made you think about what could have happened if we hadn't taken to the shelters.

Another day off school and, as if nothing had ever happened, we were back to being children and enjoying the 'fun' of war; such as ‘playing housewives’ and cleaning up the remains of the now bombed-out houses of Boulevard. My mam would have gone mad if she’d have realised that I was sneaking her valuable rationed cleaning materials out of our home so that my friend and I could play home-builders.

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