Five Years in a Few Words - My War Experiences

On the day that war was declared, the sirens went off at about 6 p.m. and the whole family sat around with their gas masks on. After that night we started to get used to the sirens and realised that we didn’t have to put the gas masks on all the time.

I married my husband, George Bishop, on 11th July, 1940. My husband’s eldest sister made the wedding dress out of stiffened silk. When I walked down the aisle the only noise that could be heard was the rustling of the silk dress. Five days after the wedding my husband rejoined his regiment, the 5th Welch Regiment, in Northern Ireland.

At the time of my marriage I was working as a fish filleter for Smethursts Limited, a fish processing company in Grimsby but left that job a few weeks after my marriage. I had a few odd jobs after leaving Smethursts but during 1941 (at the age of 21) I started work at Lloyds Cars Limited, Grimsby, making spindle shafts for Rolls Royce aircraft engines on a 6” lathe.

Following this work, I went to Lincoln in 1942 to work at Avro. My first job at Avro was on a bench cleaning parts from planes that had been shot down. We used ether to clean the parts. I had been there for three days when the Supervisor asked me how long I had been doing the cleaning job. When I told him I had been doing it for the whole of my three days at Avro, he “blew his top” - apparently workers were only supposed to be cleaning parts for half-an-hour at time due to the effects of the ether. There was no wonder I could hardly keep my eyes open when I went back to my lodgings. The Supervisor was even more upset when he found out that I was pregnant and the effect the prolonged usage of ether might have on the baby. Thankfully, all was okay when I had a baby daughter in December, 1942.

After working on cleaning parts at a bench, I was transferred to Waddington Airfield where I cleaned the bomb grips on the Lancaster Bombers. The Grips had gone rusty due to standing on the runways before they had ever been put into use.

When our daughter was about 6 months old she became very ill having contracted bronchitis, whooping cough and measles all at the same time. Although she was extremely weak she was a fighter and eventually came through the illnesses. Because she was so ill, when the air-raid sirens went off, we dare not take her into the cold damp air-raid shelter so my mother, sister, brother, the baby and me all crammed in under the table in the kitchen!

During this time my husband was shipped over to France from Ireland and then on into Germany. Whilst in Germany he transferred to the Military Police (Red Caps). He was at the relief of Belsen one of the prisoner of war camp and was on guard duty during the Belsen War Crimes Trials which included the prosecution of Josef Kramer (the Camp Commandant) and Irma Grese. One of the prosecuting officers was the actor Leo Genn.

I went to the cinema with friends one evening and when the Pathe news came on they showed footage of the Belsen Trials and there was my husband on the screen. It was quite a surprise but a pleasant one seeing my husband on the silver screen.

Ivy May Bishop (nee Mortlock)

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