Childhood Memories of World War Two in Southgate

I was eight years old, when war was declared in 1939. We had all been issued with gas masks, and when the air raid siren went off, I thought that we should all put on our gas masks straight away. I felt very frightened and thought that the enemy were coming to gas us, but as it happened gas was not used at all during the war. My sister was born in that year, and I can remember that she had to have a special gas protective container that she was put into. There was a type of pump attached to it that my parents had to work by hand to give her the oxygen that she needed.

We had to black out our windows at night, so that the lights inside our houses did not show outside, (not even a chink of light). My father made frames with wood, and covered these with blackout material, which he used to fit on to our windows each night. This was so that the German planes would find it harder to find which targets to bomb. We had to have gas masks which we had to carry everywhere with us, even to school. There were sirens that made a loud wailing sound, to warn us if there were enemy planes approaching, so that we could take shelter from any bombs. There were big search lights, that lit up the sky so that our soldiers could see the enemy planes easier, and try to shoot them down, which they were able to do sometimes. You were able to hear the drone of the enemy planes and the guns going off and I remember feeling very frightened, hoping that we would not be bombed. We had air-raid shelters in our back gardens and also in schools and other places, so we went into them until we heard the all-clear siren, which meant it was safe to come out. This period of bombing was called the blitz, and some places were very badly hit, especially London which had many buildings destroyed with the bombing, and lots of people were killed.

All through the war years we were issued with ration books, as there was a shortage of food, so we were only allowed a certain amount of food each week. We still managed to eat well as we grew a lot of our own vegetables, and some people kept chickens, and our Mothers were very good at cooking dishes that were nourishing, and making do with whatever was available to stretch the rations. Sweets were rationed, which must have been very good for our teeth. The food I remember missing most was bananas, I used to long to have one and I had to wait until the end of the war before they started to be imported again. Perhaps that is why I eat lots of them now.

We had to make our clothes last, as we were issued with clothing coupons, and they did not go very far. It was down to our mothers again who used to do lots of alterations, as we were growing children, and we grew out of our clothes very quickly.

We still had a good childhood in spite of the war. Though we had the blitz we had long periods where nothing was happening here at all. The fighting was still going on in other parts of the world, and our soldiers, sailors and airmen, were all involved. I remember going on picnics with my friends, playing on the swings in the local parks, picking bluebells in the spring, picking blackberries in the autumn, going to the children's Saturday morning cinema.

One day, after quite a long time with no action, the enemy started sending planes over without pilots. We called these Doodlebugs, but really they were the first of what were flying bombs. You could hear it coming by the droning noise it made, and when that droning noise stopped you just waited, holding your breath because you didn't know where it was going to land, and then you heard it explode. I was at a friends birthday party one day when we all had to go into her air-raid shelter, and one of these doodlebugs was over-head, a house two turnings away was completely demolished, but luckily my friends house just had a few windows broken.

After the doodlebug which was called a V.1 they then sent over a V.2 flying bomb, but this was silent, there was no droning sound, and as you couldn't hear it; it was very dangerous indeed. My Father was working in London when a V.2 flying bomb hit the building where he was several people were killed. He was very lucky becuase he was standing in the doorway at the time and somehow he was saved. His doctor said that he should go away for a rest, so my mother, sister and myself went with him. We went to Yorkshire for three months and we had a lovely time, we stayed in a big house and we went for lots of walks on the moors. I remember the little bakers just down the road, and the smell of freshly baked bread and the delicious teacakes they used to make. I joined the village library while I was there, and I read lots of books which I always enjoyed doing anyway. My father was really well after his three months convalescence and we all went back home. Everything had changed by the time we got back. We were winning the war, and a few months later peace was declared. There were lots of celebrations and it was a very happy time for everyone.

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