大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the site by the 大象传媒's Peoples War Team in the East Midlands with Geoff Whittakers permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

I was just 8ys old when war was declared. I listened with the family to the declaration of war on the radio, a little while later I noticed my mum had disappeared - I found her kneeling in a praying position, crying her heart out. This was a new experince to see her crying, but having lived through WW1 she knew what to expect.

My sister & I were evacuated to stay with two great-maiden dour aunts at Copmanthorpe, near York. At Christmas time Mum appeared with a new baby -a surprise to Joan and I. We went to the village school and I was introduced to the cane, a new experience, for something I didn't do. I felt hard done by. Some time later we went to school in Pontefract and was again caned, this time by the head master, for not knowing the past participle of the verb to see. He enjoyed the thrashing and I swore that one day when I was grown up I would go back and take my revenge. I grew up and was capable of doing so but I worked out that it would cause more trouble than it was worth.

Whilst at Copmanthorpe, in the winter of 1939, I remember walking to school one day in thick snow that towered above me; school was a 2 mile walk away. At school we all turned out one day to see the local hunt dispatch a fox, the first fox and hunt I had seen. I also remember my first memory of actual warfare. One sunny Sunday afternoon we could hear some of our planes flying round and round - I suppose doing circuits and bumps, when a different aeroplane noise came which had a dull rise and throb - then a rat a tat sounded on several occasions and I knew a German fighter plane was having a go at our trainee flyers.

After some 6/8 months we returned to Sheffield. We had, like everyone else, an Anderson Air Raid Shelter. A German plane flew over one night and dropped two bombs some 2 to 300 yds away. One demolished the corner shop and the other a couple of houses across the road and killed a girl who was in my class at school. This incident had a dynamic effect on my father - he dug another two feet of earth out of the bottom of the shelter and put it on top for added protection. We got to the stage when German planes came over quite frequently. Inside our shelter it was rather snug and warm so we started to sleep in it at night..I remember the warmth given out by a candle set between two plant pots,the upper one being turned upside down.

One Thursday afternoon(13/12/40) I was coming home from school, about 4-0pm, when my friend and I heard a German plane, obviously having a look at Sheffield. We thought this is the night and so it was,Sheffield was blitzed. We were all in the shelter listening to the bombs screaming down and exploding - with such comments as that was a near one - in reality I think the nearest one to us was about half a mile or so away but they seemed nearer. I remember that at about midnight the ack ack guns stopped firing, they had run out of ammunition. The raid continued until about 4am or so and it became quiet, after a couple of spitfires flew over then the all-clear sounded. The next day my family packed our things and we thumbed a lift and went to stay with my grandma and two aunties in Castleford. On the sunday night(15/12/40)the Germans came back to blitz Sheffield again (because they had failed their original intent to put the steel industry out of action), from my grandma's front room, some 30miles away, you could see the fires glowing and flashes of explosions but my aunt drew the curtains and I was not allowed to watch, I was a bit miffed N.B my sister got the Sunday wrong. From Castleford we moved to a house in Pontefract, whilst there in Sheffield a German bomber dropped a big bomb 7 to 8 houses away from our house and killed 10 or so neighbours.

When we returned to Sheffield I was about 10yrs old and used to play on the bombsite. At about 11yrs I went to the Grammar School and the war didn't seem to touch us much but I do recall one night hearing a different German plane noise-and over Sheffield came some doodle-bugs(V1s): only to land and explode on the moors beyond Sheffield.

My father was a locomotive fireman and was forever telling us about some of the things that happened - they are memories to me so I will recount them;
1, Coal was scarce,so when a locomotive passed through a village the fireman would shovel coal off to the waiting people near the line
2, Another time he told us of transporting soldiers arriving back from Dunkirk. At other times transporting soldiers up and down the Country changing coaches so that spys watching thought we had more than we did-he felt sorry for the soldiers being mucked about.
3, He took a train to Liverpool loaded up with mines, but Liverpool was having a large scale air raid so they were stopped in a tunnel until the raid was over, then when they got o the dock side the mines were dumped into the sea.I suppose they were later retrieved to put on board the ships they were destined for--but it seemed a bit odd to me.

One thing I do recall was that of all the people that I knew were called up none were injured or killed.

Scouting was an integral part of my life and when we went to camp we did so by loading up a Trek Cart, going by train and then pushing and pulling the cart to the campsites in Derbyshire - they always seemed a long way from the station, but these were the only holidays we got for several years.

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