Birmingham and West Midlands

Escape from Evesham

My mother came to visit us while we were in Evesham, although it was not until the Christmas hoildays that...

Memories of My Early Days

I was 17½, living with my parents in Redhill near Reigate when war broke out working in a Steel Wool...

Wartime in Smethwick

During 1941 in particular, we witnessed the results of the Luftwaffe's attention to our town's...

Demise of a Searchlight and Gun Crew

Now this night in question it seemed to be the target for the ‘Jerry’ bombers as a stick of 6...

One Family's Life During the Birmingham Blitz

In the early years of the war, I was a pupil of St. Thomas's school which was being used as a clearance...

Birmingham to Bronxville

We travelled on HMS Britannic in a party of about 12 watched over by Mrs Pope wife of the Captain - Captain...

Shrapnel: Doreen Richmond

One night there was an incendiary raid when the planes dropped hundreds of bombs all in one cluster: They...

Air Raids in Ladywood, Birmngham

An even worse decision was made by the neighbours of my Grandparents who lived a few hundred yards away in...

War in Selly Oak Birmingham, My Dad was a Policeman

BIRMINGHAM SIGHTS I lived on a hill outside Birmingham and as we went into the shelter during a raid, I...

Evacuation from Birmingham to Derbyshire

We lived on the borders of Birmingham very near to Sutton Park they said the German Pilots would see where...

Ellen Doherty's Memoirs of WW2: The Mother-in-law

One night the Germans looking for the BSA bombed our house instead with oil bombs, a neighbour threw water...

Life In Warley Smethwick, Birmingham

As a small boy I was living in Warley Smethwick near Birmingham:- The night Coventry was bombed the whole...

A failed raid in Birmingham

A few hundred yards down the road was a large Traffic Island, with a battery of Search Lights and a battery...

A Long Friendship Part 3

Vic and I went to Lotte's and Richard's Golden Wedding in Bremen and not to be out done by Lotte, I...

Evacuated from Ipswich to Birmingham

It got so bad in Birmingham we had to return to Ipswich, on the train home we had to stop just outside...

Evacuee

Mum had to stay in London to earn a living for us both... Mum was due to come and fetch me back...

The Night of the Coventry Raid as felt by My Family in Birmingham

My mother and father Alfred and Edith Rubini were living at 31, Hampton rd, Erdington, Birmingham. during...

Secrets of the Family Exposed to the World

The tumbled bedclothes on the brass and iron bedstead, the chamber pot under the bed, the unwashed shaving...

Early War Memories: My Father in the Army Dental Corps

I didn't have many toys, so my father brought me a cloth doll with a plastic face from Belgium and a...

My Life in the Birmingham Blitz

Mom was understandably very concerned and decided to find a safe place for us with my Grandfather, Albert...

Happy Memories of the Shelter

The shelter had bunk beds in and my mother would read us Winnie the Pooh stories. A birdie with a yellow...

Flo's Story

Hello, I'm Flo, and I've come to the Thinktank Museum today from The Birmingham Settlement Day...

Living in Small Spaces

When the bombing was bad my Dad parked a caravan on a farm, near a reservoir, and we cycled there in...

A Wartime Shock

When Mother decided she would like a cup of tea Dad would creep up the garden and into the kitchen and feel...

Sweet Rationing

After Mick and I were rejected as an inconvenience by Mrs Guy,I was passed on to a Mr and Mrs Parker of...

Duddeston Operations- Birmingham

Due to no bus and rail links to Hamstead Dad had to walk the 6 miles to and from the pit. One...