Sirens Over Derby

my mother recalled this story to me and is aboutthe time she first heard the sirens.
" I can remember so clearly the first time I heard the sirens across the streets of Derby where I lived. I glanced at my mother with a questioning look upon my face, unable to put into the words the questions that were racing around my head. My thoughts were shattered with a piercing whistle followed by an almighty bang as the earth shook violently as the bombs began to rain down upon us. So this really is war. We had been prepared, or so we were lead to believe, blackout curtain hung from every window and woe betide you if the faintest of light managed to force its way through the tiniest of cracks and ultimately incur the wrath of the the local Air Raid Patrol officer. Our protection came in the unlikely form of a dwelling with a corrugated tin roof, tin sided and a hearty skirt of sandbags for good measure. The Anderson Shelter, to give it its proper name was delivered in kit form and assembled at the bottom of the garden. I suppose we thought that if Hitler should get round to paying us a visit, then at the very least we could hide in it! Our house didn't have a shelter but our neighbours did an it was with kindness coupled with a dinstinct sense of duty that we piled in as and when the call came. On particular occasion I remember standing in total amazement watching a single plane fly overhead and thinking ...gosh! I was quickly brought down to earth with a jump, almost quite literally, as the pilot began to fire upon workers changing shifts at one of the factories nearby. Going to school always took longer than usual as we soberly took in the scenes of devastation, family homes were replaced with enormous bomb craters and our conversations were drowned by the screams of fire engines and ambulance sirens. Our morbid curiosity prevailed as we collected bits of shrapnel, reminders perhaps of what used to be. I remember being woken one night by the wail of the siren and being ushered into the shelter and there we sat, and sat... The fact that our neighbours were missing was no real surprise as people had already begun to adopt the attitude that
'if Hitler wanted them, then he would jolly well have to come over himself and get them!'
People often ignored the siren and stayed put, preferring to die in the comfort of their own beds! Still we sat and we waited for the all-clear to sound. After several hours we became aware of an increase in noise and movement outside. We ventured to take a look outside and were somewhat surprised to see our neighbours going about their business. It did not take rocket science to work out that we had entered the security of the shelter during the all-clear siren! We must have slept quite well that evening!

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