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| My Grandad at age 3 |
This blog is dedicated to my grandparents. They have always believe in me . They understand me like no one else does. I am the woman I am today because of them. They have amazing stories and are truly inspirational. I love you both with all my heart.
It is in the form of an interview as that is how I gathered the information.
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| The Anderson Shelter |
Anna-How old where you when the war started?
Sheila- I was born in 1937 so I was two
Andy-I was seven years old
Anna-So do you remember the war starting Nana?
Sheila- I don't no
Anna-So all you remember is really the war from your first childhood memories
Sheila- Yes my first childhood memories I was definitely about 4 years old when I remember things that happen in the war
Anna-But you remember the war starting Granda?
Andy-oh yes it was exciting!
Anna-exciting! How?
Andy-Well, because, a boy of 7 gets a hint of action and that's exciting! We had no idea what it meant of course
Anna-Do you remember how it was announced?
Andy-No because my parents told me.
Anna-Can you remember the first air raid sirens going off?
Sheila-I can remember air raid sirens but they weren't the first but I can remember them very clearly but they were a nasty eery sound, we did get used to them, but if I heard them at home I would run to my Mummy and she would say right into the garden and into the shelter. She would call my brother (9 years older than my Nan) but he wouldn't come down, yet I used to like going down as my Mother kept a tin of biscuits down there! (clearly where I get my sweet tooth from) So thats my memory of the actual sound
Anna-What where the air raid shelters like?
Sheila- Well we had one in the garden, which was a big hole dug into the garden, and corregated iron in a kind of oval shape over the top of the hole, but you could make it very cosy and comfortable. My Father had put in some kind of matted flooring and there were benches my Mother had put blankets and cushions as sometimes I had to sleep down there. It was like a cosy camp in the back of our garden! They had a name, the Anderson shelter. But we also had one indoors, in the lounge, it was like an upturned metal bed, it was weird, I didn't like it that much. But also I remember, my Mother used to push me under the dining room table, I don't know why she only did that sometimes, I have never discovered it. My favourite was the one in the garden, because of the biscuits!
Anna-Can you remember how they were built? Did anyone come and build them or did you have to do it yourself?
Sheila- Well my memory as a child is my Father doing it himself, and they supplied you with all this corrugated iron which went over the hole
Andy-Well my Father had gone into the army and was away at war, so we used to go in the shelter which was owned by our neighbours, but then after a while we got our own, the newer sort , the first sort called Anderson shelters, then the new sort Morrison shelters. These were designed by a guy called Herbet Morrison , one of the great politicians of the time. So this was built up in our lounge, and my Mother decorated it on top and made it look like a big dining room table! I thought it was quite comfortable really. At first , it was all noise, most of the raids were in London, we were in the suburbs. Then they started to discover that not far away from us in a place called Feltham was a munitions factory, so they would bomb that which was near our house.
Sheila- There were also big water reservoir near us, very near, and the Nazi bombers were trying to smash the damn walls of the reservoir which would mean everywhere would be very badly flooded and we would loose alot of water. I don't think they ever were successful.
Andy-No they weren't, but they did have a near miss because, one evening, we used to stand on the doorstep, being boys and watch the bombers, and we watched this one. It was coming straight for us trying to hit the damns, but the guns ontop of the reservoir hit this plane and so it came crashing down about half a mile from the house where we lived.
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| The Morrison shelter |
Anna- Oh wow. Did you know anyone that got bombed?
Sheila- Well, I knew of this family. They lived in the same road as we did which was Ashford Cresent. We lived at 36, they were further down the end. One night there was a horrendous raid, and we stayed in the anderson shekter for a long time, and my Father who was a policeman insisted my brother go down to the anderson shelter that evening. A bomb landed in our road. The next day my Mother took me to see this gaping hole, I can see it now, in the ground, where once these people lived and there home was completely blown apart and there was a crater were all there furniture and belongings where and very sadly their bodies as well...
Anna- So they hadn't survived?
Sheila-No they didn't survive and our whole road was in total shock. This was further into the war now and I can remember my Mother holding my hand and... taking me to see that , I don't think you'd do that to a child today
Anna-No
Sheila- I think it must have effected me. My brother was excited about it but it was very nasty. We all knew them and they'd been totally wiped out. The scary thing was, it could have been us.
Andy-Yes further on in the war, when I was about 11, me and my mates used to get on our bikes to see if we could see any action and about that time, instead of dropping bombs by aeroplane, as we just used to shoot those down, the Nazis invented the doodlebug. An aeroplane without a pilate, so they used to point it in the direction and set it off until it would run out of fuel and then it would drop. Bang. So , they were a funny sound, you knew when it was making a sound you werent in danger. Yet if the sound stopped, that meant it was going to come down, so you always wondered where it was going to be. 11/12 year old boys aren't scared so we waited for it to stop, heard bang, got on our bikes to go and see where it had landed.
Sheila- I used to watch them in my back garden, it was a horrible silence when it stopped and just watching them fall out of the sky
Andy- in a way it was very scary and in a way it was very exciting. Slightly more scary was when they would fire rockets at us as you couldn't hear those.
Anna- So when was that?
Andy- About 1943, close to the end. I remember standing in our school playground, you wouldn't get an air raid warning, so that was a bit more scary.
Anna-So was school different in the war?
Andy- Well the thing that was different was of course alot of male teachers had to go to war so there weren't the same number of teachers available. Our education was still pretty good. What is more is that as the enemy was Hitler, people were much more friendly, so if for example we were going to school and the air raid siren went, all the ladies at home would stand and open their gates so we could go in. It was just accepted as the enemy was Hitler. So it was great in that sense
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| The Doodlebug |
Sheila- Yes I remember that, we were told, as we all walked to school in those days, that if we were walking to school and the air raid sirens went off , if we were close run to school but if not then to go to the nearest house.
( I have listened to the siren online and the sound is haunting)
Sheila- I enjoyed running to school due to the big big shelters in the playing field and we were all together. But you didn't get out of lessons! You were taught lessons in the shelter, I loved it! I grew up like this, this was life. My Daddy being a policeman was at home so I was fortunate. My home was safe and secure, I don't remember feeling unhappy or even frightened
Andy-No yes No
Sheila- as children you accept it and I started school during the war so to me this was the norm. The sound of the siren was horrible, not nice at all.
Anna- Was life different after the war or did it take a long time to get back to itself?
Sheila- well during the war there was the rationing , food and clothes. Which was very difficult for our mothers, we had a little pat of butter to last the whole family to last the week, small amount of sugar. Ration books with coupons for meat, once the coupons were finished that was it
Anna-Was it different for each family?
Andy- You would have a ration book each person
Sheila-My Mother would often save up for special things, if she felt we needed better meat. My Mother used to pickle eggs so the eggs would stay fresh. We didn't have fridges you see. My Mother used to make a boiled cake, in a saucepan it was so nice.
Andy-My Mother used to make potato pancakes.
Sheila-In the government there was a food minister
Andy-Lord Walton
Sheila- He devised a very healthy diet, people could live on this diet. They say now that there was no obesity, sickness was wiped out because of this very special diet, good and healthy for our bodies. I didn't see a banana until i was 10. Nothing could come from other countries as ships were used for fighting in the war , not transporting food. Somehow oranges did appear at Christmas as there was always one in my stocking!
It was difficult as sometimes butchers would do what you call under the counter , so if they took a special liking to a certain customer, they would give her a wink when she walked in and put extra sausages in her package! This was going on. And clothes rationing. We had one pair of shoes for school , Sundays, and in the summer sandals. There was a shop called Bata's, and when the summer sandals came in, my Mother would get up at an earthly hour in the morning and get in the queue to get me some summer sandals and that was it-they had to last the whole summer.
Andy-People were very happy in the war
Sheila-Well to us children they were. There was sadness and death and telegrams arriving every day that a soldier or sailor had been killed. That must have been awful.
Anna- Is there anything else you would like to say about the war that is maybe forgotten or what people don't talk about?
Sheila- When I look back now, I realise as children we were quite protected from it all really. I mean some cities where completely raised to the ground, they were just devastated, a terrible loss of life, we only had that one incident in our road which was bad enough, I mean our mothers well, Andy's Mother not only had to look after 3 children but she also worked in a factory which was very hard work I don't know what they made. My Mother didn't do any other work but she always seemed to be doing something. Women in who where Mothers in the war never lost that frugality that we must be careful not to loose, you never threw a scrap of food away , that would have been so wicked! A child just had to eat as you never knew when you would next eat. My Mother would have to make funny things for Tea like sandwiches with sugar and currents. That's why this generations teeth are so bad. My Father kept chickens so sometimes we would have to eat these chickens. I hated it, but it was food. He grew any vegetables he could find, like potatoes.
Andy- My grandfather ran a general store, which included every supply you needed for the war, so he would send us a food parcel. We think he actually squeezed them out of his own rations. My Mother got very thin I remember during the war...
Sheila- I think most of the mothers did
Andy-They used to give everything to the children
Sheila- we would go blackberrying ever such a lot. My Mother would save her rations for sugar and we would make blackberry jam which was Vitman C. Alot of the children during the war had rickets and illness' due to lack of vitamins.
Andy- You know Ribena actually came from the war because of its blackcurrant juice because of it's very good source of vitamin C.
Sheila-The women of the war where amazing. Everything had to be mended. I mean today , if Andy gets a hole in his sock we throw it away, then the socks were darned and used again and again. If a women managed to get a hold of a nice pair of stockings it was a tragedy if they laddered and she would mend them and stitch them. We are a throw away society today. You couldn't do that back them. Alot of things weren't in the shops because they had to be used to build planes and bombs, things were taken from us. We had fresh milk, that was when the milk being given to children at school started.
Andy- And this was real milk! Real solid full cream milk.
Sheila- We never got them in glass bottles as glass was needed for other things. You weren't allowed to use your car ,if you had a car, unless you were a doctor or something like that. Everyone went around on bicycles. even in the 60's this was still going on.
Andy- Winding back to earlier in the war. The Nazis sent hundreds of bombers over, we'd try and shoot them down.Bristol was awfully attacked
Sheila-Yes the city of Coventry was devastating , the cathedral.
Anna-That's when alot of children were evacuated as well
Andy-Yes quite
Sheila- I am surprised we weren't evacuated. My Mother had two of my cousins who lived in the east end. I didn't enjoy that time, they were so bossy. I was not happy. They didn't stay long. Alot of children in our area though where evacuated,
Andy- I did go and stay with my Aunty and Uncle for a bit but my Mother came with us, for a rest possibly! This was near the end of the war when we used to make glider attacks. I remember watching these as they were taking off at an air place nearby. They release it over enemy lines. One glider once broke and I can see it now it just crashed to the ground. I can't imagine anyone survived it but I never knew. Bristol was about 20 miles away was awfully bombed, we could stand and watch the fires.
Anna- wow I never knew this about Bristol
Sheila-Anywhere where there was factories was targeted, where people where making weapons or tracking machines. I remember also standing in our garden and watching um what where those huge balloon type things
Andy-Blimps?
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| A Zeppelin |
Andy-The Zeppelins
Sheila-Yes! They were weird, they carried people
Andy- Originally they were air ships, they had little baskets underneath that carried people, they weren't at all safe. The balloons where full of hydrogen so they had alot of accidents. Yet they were quite
Sheila- I remember watching these and one did collapse. They were more scary in the sky than some of the Nazi planes, Zeppelins where eery.
Sheila-Yet it led to a very happy period in my life. My grandfather used to patrol the banks along the north Norfolk coast. This was about the time the war was nearing its end and alot of prisoners of war had been captured and these men happened to be Ukrainian. He received these prisoners of war to help him with the banks and the rivers. For a few years, either when the war was still going on or when the war had ended because many people were still kept prisoners in this country for a long time, I would go and visit him over the summer and me and my friends there used to go down and we would play cricket with them! When they all returned to the Ukraine , one used to come back and visit my grandparents which to me is just so lovely. I often think about them, they've probably all passed away now.
Not many people actually wanted to fight. It was awful. All Nazi, not German. Most of them were ordinary men who didn't want to fight one another.
Anna-Any last messages?
Sheila- Please always be thankful for the things you have and don't always be craving over things you want. Our heavenly Father will always provide you with what you need. Please be satisfied.
Andy-Never let an enemy be a real enemy because in the end alot of them will just want to be friends.
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| Andy and his Mother in around 1934 |
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| My Nans Uncle Robert Tipple who lost his life in the War when he was only 19 |
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