´óÏó´«Ã½

My first memories of the war started with the installation of an Anderson air raid shelter in the back garden of my parents house, 8 Whitley Rd, Heaton Moor, Stockport, Cheshire. My father Harry, mother Winifred, sister Wendy and I had moved into this newly built semi-detached house in 1939 shortly before war was declared.

My father was a process engraver at Kemsley House Newspapers, Withy Grove, Manchester was called up into the RAF in April 1941, so when the air raid siren sounded it was my mother who woke my sister and I to go down into the garden shelter. We used to go to bed in our warm ‘siren suits’ as they were called, similar to all-in-one track suit. My mother who was a skilled sewing machinist by trade made them from some of her old coats as clothing rationing was in force. Every night flasks of tea, food, candles, matches, sheets and blankets plus the necessary bucket for toilet were readies in case the air-raid warning sounded.

In the evenings the radio kept us entertained before going to bed with children’s programmes and Tommy Handley’s ITMA shows with Colonel Chinstrap, Monahott and ‘Funf speaking’! One night we heard Lord Haw Haw on our radio (who was William Joyce the British traitor) with his programme from Germany, ‘Jairmainy Calling’ he would say, then his propaganda would start.

The Heaton Moor Rugby Club ground near to the rear of our house was taken over and converted into anti-aircraft gun emplacements. We could hear the orders and range distances being called out during an air raid. Then the whole ground would shake and soil and turf on our shelter roof would move as the guns fired, even though the shelter was buried well down below ground level. Other gun crews from ‘Hell Fire Corner’ (the Dover area) were moved up for a rest period and they were pretty good, and a cheer would go up when they hit a ‘jerry’ plane.

When there was a daylight raid and after the ‘all-clear’ sounded, I, as well as other boys would go out to look for ‘hot shrapnel’, jagged metal fragments from the anti aircraft shells.
One morning after an all night raid we emerged from our shelter to find a piece of shrapnel stuck in the outside of the shelter door.

Another of my ‘musts’ after a daylight raid was to pedal like the blazes on my three-wheel bike to the fire station as it was called, next door to the Savoy Cinema, on Heaton Moor Rd to see the siren still turning on the top of the roof. After one air-raid we heard that the bombers were trying to hit the Fairey aviation factory and Crossley Brothers Motors near Heaton Chapel but hit the McVitie’s Biscuit Factory instead.

I also remember one daylight raid when instead of going down our shelter we crossed the wasteground in front of our house to go to a bigger shelter belonging to Mr and Mrs Turvey. As we crossed the wasteground a plane came over very low and it was a German bomber, I could see the swastikas on it, it was very scary!

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.