First Air Raid

I was 8 at the outbreak of the war. One night, soon after hostilities started, the air raid siren sounded. It was too early in the war for us to have air raid shelters and we had arranged with our neighbours that we would take refuge in their garden shed. We all met up there with our gas masks, blankets and warm clothing. It was not easy to see in the dark and someone bumped into a tin bath that was kept hanging in the shed, bringing it crashing down on to the concrete floor, an event which caused my mother to collapse in a fit of the giggles. Nothing happened for a while then the all-clear siren sounded. The meaning of this was lost on us as no one had, by this time, learned the meaning of the various warning signals and so, to be on the safe side, we all put on our gas masks. About 20 minutes later we cautiously took them off and, as there was no signs of any gas or an enemy attack, we all went back to bed. It turned out that this was just a false alarm caused, it was afterwards said, by a mouse eating one of the wires!

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