Bombed Out in Bootle and Evacuated

Not many months after our return from Ireland the May Blitz started. We were then living in Bootle, and the blitz was aimed at the docks all along the waterfront from Liverpool to Bootle and beyond.These docks were the centre for the importation from America of all the goods essential to this country's survival. The headquarters for the Battle of the Atlantic was housed under major buildings in one of the main streets in Liverpool. Many people do not realise the extent to which Liverpool was devastated during the war. It would seem that people in Cumbria could see the flames from burning buildings in Liverpool.After several nights of being taken into the air raid shelter, and being placed on a wicker chair with a blanket around me, we came out after a particularly heavy raid to find the house in flames. Like many other families we then went to the WVS, where I have an image of camp beds. The fires were mainly started by incendiaries,but a landmine coming down on a parachute hit a railway embankment and the blast spread. If it had hit the ground the casualties would have been enormous. My mother had a favourite china teaset which had been a wedding present. Although many items were lost or destroyed that night only one cup of that teaset was broken, and it is now owned by one of her granddaughters.
There was an item of clothing known as a 'siren suit', an all-in-one suit, that mothers dressed their children in ready to lift them out of bed and into the shelters as soon as the siren went.
Soon afterwards I was evacuated to Ormskirk, a rural town about 12 miles inland from Liverpool.

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