My War Memories

My War Memories
Mabel Beaven (nee Hand)

Born in 1923 I had just turned 16 when war broke out, and it was to change our lives forever. I was working at Barratts sweet factory and was soon sewing sandbags to protect the factory from the bombs. They started music while you work and concerts during the dinner hour at the factory to keep up morale.

We spent lots of time in the air raid shelters, sometimes the sirens were going all day. We’d sit in the shelter quaking in our shoes, sometimes all night too. We watched bombers going over at night, and we’d wonder if London were getting it bad again. One night one plane came over low and strafed our wall, we lived at the top of the house and so heard our windows breaking. We all dived under the table. My mother lost her temper and ran into the street shaking her fist at the sky. When she saw our boy’s she’d shout “give it to them boy’s”. Houses were blown up around us and we lost many friends.

My sister and I started fire-watching and running messages. I ran messages on my bike to the fire station and I learnt to use a stirrup pump, that was used to put out incendiary bombs. I was then called up to work in a hospital, I wanted to go into the land army, but they wanted us for the hospitals. I found I was to work on a four ward block at Highfields, Green Dragon Lane, Winchmore Hill. I was looking after our wounded boys in their light blue suits. One day they were moved out and German wounded prisoners of war were put in their place, most were badly wounded. I saw many a sight as I helped nurses to move them.

If anybody said to me “what do you remember?” I’d say “the smell of gangrene”, they came in with their field dressings on. I also made beds; polished wards and gave out Red Cross rations, like 10 cigarettes for a week, and a round chocolate like money in gold paper. I will always remember them singing “Silent Night” in German to a piano player that came in. I was only very young 18 and I grew up fast, some of the German’s were younger, only 16. There were Polish among them who had a choice to fight with them or die, these were despised.

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