大象传媒

When the war was declared in 1939 it was not really unexpected. People said 鈥渙k it will not last long-six months or 1 year at the most.鈥� Little did we realise what was ahead.
My first memory, I lived in Derbyshire. I was 21 and on a holiday at Butlins Holiday Camp in Skegness with my boy-friend. Suddenly all lights were extinguished. All social activities stopped. Loud-speakers told us we were at war with Germany. Windows were hurriedly fitted with black-out curtains. Groups of people were huddled round radios. The holiday camp had to be evacuated.
Selfish me! My first thought was 鈥渨e have lost this holiday that we saved up for!鈥� Many young men were Reservists and had to report for duty. Couples stood around arms round each other, saying 鈥渉old tight,鈥� and crying.
Back home and back to work as usual nothing seemed different at first. My brother was a Reservist (he had 7 years training) so he was away immediately. 鈥淚t won鈥檛 be long,鈥� he told his mother.

The next thing I remember is being given a gas mask in a cardboard box. We had to carry it everywhere. Windows had to be taped, Black-out material was available, and we had to rig up curtains so that not a bit of light showed. Wardens walked round and if they saw a light they would shout 鈥淧UT THAT LIGHT OUT!鈥� To walk outside we were allowed to use torches with just a pin-point of light and had to point them down.

The first time the siren sounded we had just gone to bed. Granny started to panic about gas. Only one of us didn鈥檛 have a gas-mask so she made a towel wet and told him to cover his mouth and nose. We sat on the stairs in the dark for ages looking through a small window at crowds of people walking up to the hills carrying their belongings. Eventually we got fed-up and went to bed and slept.
The next day we discovered we had slept through the warning siren, and the 鈥渁ll clear鈥� siren had woken us, how silly we felt!!

Food and clothing were rationed. So was coal. One kind of bread available, we hated it at first, it was dingy in colour and called the 鈥渘ational loaf鈥�.
What to wear when getting married was a problem. I heard of girls making wedding-gowns from net curtains, and a coat made from a blanket became quite fashionable.
Stockings were scarce so we used eye liner to paint straight lines down the back of each others legs to look like seams. Imagine how we looked when it rained!

As more and more men left their jobs to join forces women took over. Many found it very exciting. Women did men鈥檚 work. Bus and heavy vehicle driving. Engineering and working on the land. We could not choose where to work-we had to go where we were directed. I was told to go and learn to operate a high crane, but then I went down with 鈥榝lu so I missed that and put down for food distribution (that meant working in a food shop).
When I was in London I had to learn to use a stirrup-pump and put fires out on the railway line.
Of course many people made money from food shortages. That was called the 鈥淏lack Market.鈥� I worked in a shop in London, and one day a man from the shop opposite from where I worked offered me double the wages I was getting if I would go and work for him. It was a very tempting offer, but I just said I鈥檇 think about it.
Well, next day I saw police rush into his shop and all the staff bundled out into black police vans. I could have been one of them.
Customers who came in the shop I worked in used to offer me money to give them rations, but I ignored them.
I was once offered a job in Soho, and again I would earn more, and told I could forget rationing if I worked there. I could have whatever food I needed. Fortunately I had a sensible and more worldly husband to advise me not to because Soho 鈥渋s a rough place.鈥�

We lived in a tiny cosy little flat at the top of a tall corner house. One night when there was an air-raid we went down to the basement shelter. I have never been so frightened in my life. Fortunately it was not my night to guard the railway line!
Hours later we came out and all around was flattened. Our sturdily built corner house survived. Soon after that my husband, Neville was posted to Yorkshire so we packed up and left London. Again I was fortunate as just after that the Germans sent the 鈥渄oodle bugs鈥� over.

Matlock in Derbyshire was a much safer place to live in. We had no bombs, but were quite heavily machine-gunned one night. No-one hurt, but several narrow escapes. One man walking home dived into a ditch just in time to escape being hit. Another man was in bed. He sat up to see a low flying German plane. He dived down and missed the bullet which hit his bed head.
When I got to work next morning it was to find the top of the building had been hit. Had it been daytime there would have been people working there- possibly me, so I was lucky.

When Neville was posted overseas we had no idea where he was going. We devised a code so that when I got his first letter I might be able to know where he was. It worked-he was in Africa. To get there they had to zigzag down the coast of Spain and Portugal to avoid German submarines. He was in charge of a mobile X-ray unit and moved all along the north coast of Africa.

Just over 3 years later he arrived home, his uniform was tied together with string and he had sand in his pockets and looked so very.very tired. He had been issued with a de-mob suit, a hat and shoes, but no spare underwear. I had to go down to the town to buy some. Fortunately I had some clothing coupons. He felt so strange wearing civvies for the first time in 5 years.
He had seen terrible injuries, and had nightmares for a while. He would wake up shouting. However that passed.

My Grandfather had a business in Sheffield, and the night the city was heavily bombed, he was trapped in the cellar of a building that was hit. He managed to crawl out through the rubble and found a phone that was still working. He rang Wilfred, his eldest son and shouted, 鈥淔or god鈥檚 sake get me out of this place!鈥�
Wilfred jumped in his car and went into the city, found him and brought him home to Matlock. He was smothered in soot and rubble. Granny washed his hands and face and stripped off his clothing, gave him a hot drink and tucked him up in a warm bed where he had a long sleep. He recovered and was able to go back to Sheffield to see what damage was done. 30 miles away in Matlock, we had seen the glow in the sky from the fires. Many people had died that night.

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