大象传媒

When war broke out I was 13 years old and living in Birmingham where we had really bad bombing 鈥� incendiaries, high explosives, landmines. I remember watching Marks and Spencer鈥檚 and the market hall burning in a reflection in my bedroom window in the company of my mother. One high explosive bomb just missed my house and hit a nearby petrol station, leaving a great big crater where it used to be. It was so near we were lucky to have escaped with our lives. Ours was the only building left standing in the street (William street north). The injured were brought into our house and the family helped dress their wounds.

I left school at 14 and went to work in the Co-Op and then Woolworths, before going on war work. At first I worked in a leather goods workshop that had been commandeered for war production. Then I worked in a factory testing submarine flares for leaks. Any leaks that were discovered by submerging the flare in water and after oven drying we would solder them.

As the war was nearing its end, the only way to leave your job was if you went into other essential work (reserve occupation), such as in the food trade. Many items of food were on ration. Rationing continued for some time after the war ended.

During the air raids our nights were spent in the shelter. We experienced all types of bombing and every night the dog would wait at the door, looking at us as though to say 鈥渃ome on then, let鈥檚 go down to the shelter!鈥� when the windows were broken with the bomb blast, instead of coming in through the door, she would jump in through the remaining part of the window which was low .she used to think this was very clever and wagged her tail for some time after.

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