A Tale of My War

In September 1939 I was 5 years old. I can remember the outbreak of War as if it were yesterday My Mum & Dad listened to the Dreadful announcement on our old accumulator driven radio, and when the speech had ended, my Dad just lost it! he ran round the house taping up the windows with brown paper parcel tape, he wet a sack and put it up the chimney and made us all sit around with Gas Masks on(they were awful and smelled of rubber), my youngest Brother was only about a year old and they put him in a Gas Mask which had to be laced up round his middle, he screamed and screamed until taken out of it. After what was the initial panic, things returned to normal, although there was a lot of talk about the Air Raid Wardens turning everyone out of Church as it was a Sunday Morning. Sirens were heard on lots of occasions warning about aircraft that never came,posts appeared in gardens with Greenish Yellow boards on the top, my Mum said they were to detect Gas. It seemed a long time before the first bombs were dropped and we had moved into a new house, much bigger because my Dad had a new job working for the War Office, as he was 50 years old when the war started, the house was of course rented in those days, and we lived in that house until I joined the Airforce in 1952. That house could tell a tale or two, if it could speak. My Elder Brother worked for the Borough Treasurers department and had a racing bike which I envied even at that age, he used to cycle to work on it and out to where German aircraft had been shot down, to collect souveniers of bits of metal some which he swore had traces of blood on. My only Sister worked for the ARP which was eventually called Civil Defence and my younger Brother, George and I slept in the Kitchen under a Morrison Shelter, a table made of steel with a bed under, and my youngest Brother Michael slept in a cot by my Mum and when the sirens went she would get up and put him and her Mum Granny Rolfe under the stairs until the all clear. When I was six years and three months my youngest Brother Michael died of a contagious disease which caused him to retain urine and the effect killed him. By now Gran was going batty, and Mum had to haveher put into the old persons ward at the Municipal Hospital. And life went on! My older Brother Wally (Called Nobby) because he had a large head, joined the Home Guard and went out to all sorts of places around the town protecting us from German invasion, of which I was terrified, along with the bombs.He used to make me laugh with some of his tales, about patrol, once his pal OZZY fell down a grave in the cemetry and frightened Nobby to death by making awful noises until he was pulled out by the rest of the Guard, with hindsight it all sounded a bit like Dad's Army not even thought of in those days. My Sister Shirley was a telephone operator for the emergency services all controlled by one group in those days of war, the various members called in on their way to work either on or off shift, and sat or rather squatted on the fireguard round the kitchen fire,while my Mum made tea and dripping toast for them, the tales they told were amazing to my young ears, especially as I was supposed to be asleep. Dad used to fire watch, as his war effort for the community, and he slept in the chair by the table shelter, for most of the war nights despite the fact that he was supposed to be protecting us kids when the siren went! We used to Say "Dad Dad" "The sirens gone " humn humn " When we woke him to say that the All Clear had gone the response was the same. Time ran on and as a result of an unexploded bomb we were evacuated for about 3 weeks which we spent at a friend of my Dad's, one night there was a big raid and the next morning we were taken to see an Army lorry wedged between two trees where it had been thrown by the blast.Shortly after this Nobby went into the RAF and went to Alberta in Canada to train as a Pilot, just before he went we kids received parcels from America, which were called Bundles for Britain. In mine was a letter asking us to stay if ever we were in New York, we of course never were able to but, Nobby did on leave from Alberta, they gave him a great leave took him up The Empire State Building and to Radio City and had a huge party for him, he remained friends with them until their death in the 1980s. He got his wings and came back to England bringing all sorts of goodies for us, Philip Morris and Lucky Strike Cigarettes for Dad sweets,chocolate bars, and big comics for us boys, and rations for Mum, huge tins of best butter, and tinned food. He was posted to a bomber squadron and flew Whitleys & Halifax's dropping bombs and sometimes supplies to resistance groups, he sometimes flew down the length of the road on his return annoying our Butcher as the tins of Corned Beef used to collapse due to the vibration, we thought it exiting but I expect it was against the rules.There were a lot of bombing raids on Hastings and we only managed to get about three half days schooling and even then the lessons were interupted by warning sirens. When the country was preparing for the invasion the main road at the end of our road was the main coast road and the convoys were always moving along it, if we were not at school we took tea to the dispatch riders who were directing the traffic over the junction, and it all seemed very exiting, even though we were always frightened that we too would be invaded. Then one night my Sister Shirley came home from work in a terrible state saying that some of our aircraft were coming home on fire and that the Ack Ack batteries were firing at them, everyone was terribly upset, but of course they were not our planes at all but Doodle Bugs.I remember listening to Tommy Handley with ITMA and having to shut up when the news was on, I also remember how upset Nobby was just after Arnhem when he realised that some of the gliders he had been towing had been caught in the fighting. I can remember too many things to write about all of them, like walking out to a farm where you could get a fresh egg for tea, and according to Shirley that is not all you could get at this farm, but we were too young to know or really to appreciate the horror of the time. We were able to play out, no fear of traffic and always plenty of things to do and explore, between air raids. I remember the end of the war the joy of every one Fireworks and Bengal Matches found from somewhere, of people laughing and shouting, and kissing the feeling of relief that we would not be killed or captured. I remember every one saying "Never again"!! " IF ONLY"

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.