大象传媒

This story was submitted by Alan Welsh, a Radio Cumbria volunteer, on behalf of Alex McKenzie and has been added to the site with his permission.

During the war, Alex was a schoolboy living in Barrow-in-Furness. He attended Latona Street school near his home on Walney Island. There were many air raid siren alerts and, at the start of the war, Alex and his school friends would run to the neighbouring field where would they lay down until the all clear siren went! Eventually the school got its own shelter; conveniently it was built in the same field!

Alex鈥檚 family lived next door to Mr. George Holden, the manager of the shipyard at Barrow, and his family. This was rather fortuitous for the McKenzie family as Mr. Holden had his own private air raid shelter built in his front garden and he invited the McKenzie鈥檚 to use it.

Now this was no ordinary shelter, oh no, it was FULLY equipped including 4 bunkbeds, an escape hatch, heating, food supplies and a stove! It also had more than ample room for the eight people that made up the Holden and McKenzie families. Alex also remembers he always got a half-day off school after an air raid.

As a ten year old at the start of the war, Alex was taught how to put out an incendiary bomb. This involved two children, one with a bucket of water and a stirrup pump and the other lying on the ground with the pipe to direct the spray on to the 鈥渂omb鈥� - which was usually an old tin can. Once the 鈥渂omb鈥� had been sufficiently doused, someone then came along with a bucket of sand to pour over it 鈥� just to make sure!

The Germans were trying to bomb the aircraft carrier 鈥淚llustrious鈥� and a number of light cruisers that were being built in Barrow. Alex recalls a very strange vessel being built that he thought was monstrous. Nobody in the town had any idea what this was, though he later discovered it was part of the Mulberry harbour used after D-Day.

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