- Contributed byÌý
- Billericay Library
- People in story:Ìý
- Mrs Joan Street
- Location of story:Ìý
- Leytonstone, East London
- Background to story:Ìý
- Civilian
- Article ID:Ìý
- A2793297
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 29 June 2004
The war was declared, we had all been issued with gas masks and identity cards. I can still remember the number to this day: CDDA2654.
There was my brother, 2 sisters and mum and dad. I think it was the same day that the siren went from enemy planes so we all sat with our gas masks really frightened because we didn’t have a clue what to do then.
After what seemed like a long time — but apparently wasn’t — the all-clear siren went. We switched on the radio and announcement came on saying it was a false alarm, a flock of birds! That was the beginning.
I was about eleven and a half years old, born in 1927 — which makes me 77 years old now. I wasn’t evacuated and soon I was old enough to start work (I left school at 14). This meant I spent the whole of World War 2 in Leytonstone, East London.
Everyone had to put up blackout curtains and sticky tape on their windows because the light needed to be blacked out so enemy planes couldn’t see anything. And the sticky tape stopped the windows from shattering with the bomb blast.
We all were issued with clothing and food coupons for rationing. We had to line up in queues to get what food there was. The Americans sent over tins of spam and dried egg powder which was very nice!
One day I went to the dentist to have a tooth out. As I was walking home along the High Street, there was a buzz bomb: They were pilotless bombs sent over and when the engine stopped, the bomb would drop. As the engine stopped, a man on a bicycle threw himself down on the road flat, so I followed suit and laid down on my stomach against the pavement. After it had gone off, I could see the black smoke a few streets away. I thought it was my grandmother’s flat but it was in the next road. A few hours after that, the shock caused me to have the gum plugged up with cotton wool because the gum had hemorrhaged in the blast!
At first, we were frightened to go to the cinema or anywhere but as time went on, we used to go to the cinema. A message would come on the screen, ‘The siren warning has been sounded.’ We could hear bombs, and anti-aircraft guns going off — you didn’t know what you were going to see when you came out! And then the screen would advertise, ‘The all-clear has been sounded.’
We had an indoor shelter. It was called a Morrison Table Shelter, made of very thick metal. But we still got bombed out by a buzz bomb. Just as we got under the table, it got very quiet because the engine of the buzz bomb had stopped then. We felt our bodies slightly lift, then there were bricks falling and noise and dust everywhere. The front of the house was slightly pushed in. But we were all safe. And then tea vans came round straight away for cups of tea! Later in the day, my mum found a piece of metal from the bomb twisted on the settee.
Other people had an Anderson’s Garden Shelter, which was dug into the ground.
Some of us used to save the parachutes that were dropped (they were made of lovely silky material) and made curtains out of them: they were a pale lemony green colour.
One day, walking home from work, the planes were overhead. I ran in somebody’s doorway and fortunately, 2 elderly ladies opened the door and took me indoors under the stairs with them.
Us girls couldn’t get stockings so we used to paint our legs with some light brown liquid, then put an eyebrow pencil line up the back center of the legs and they looked like fully fashioned stockings! We used to knit thick what we called ‘snoods’, that was netting that went over the head to keep your hair nice. We used to take the cellophane wrappers off of cigarette packs, fold them in strips and plait belts out them.
Then the American soldiers came over (wow!), with plenty of money, which put our men’s noses out of joint, and treated all the ladies politely.
I worked in an office that was over a factory. When the air raid warnings went, we all used to go down to the cellars. Gradually, people stopped going down there but I still went because I promised my mum I would. So I was given filing to take with me!
At one time my mother had volunteered for fire watching. So the guns were sounding and the bonbs. She put on her coat and tin hat and ran down the road to the warden's hut. Running down she could hear shrapnel hitting her helmet. Whe she got to the hut, the warden said, 'You do look in a state.' She told them about the shrapnel - but it was metal hair curlers in her hair! They told her to go home to her children and not worry.
I met my husband in 1945; he was in the Navy. We got married in 1947.
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