91热爆

Mr and Mrs Crozier wrote the following story for their grandaughter and have understood the rules and regulations of the site and has agreed that this story can be entered on the People's War web site.

The Second World War seen though the eyes by Nanny and Pop.

Nanny was born in 1938 and Pop was born in 1939. At the start of the war Nanny was 18 months old and Pop was 6 months old, their memories will be the latter part of the war.

Where Nanny and Pop lived as children was only 16 miles from the centre of London. The first year of the war in England from 1939 to 1940 very little happened and they called this the phoney war.Then the Battle of Britain started and from there on life changed, bombing of cities and towns began.
This is their story.
Gas masks
As children we all had to have gas masks and have them at all times, this was due to should the enemy drop bombs filled with killer gas we could protect our selves. As time went on all the population had gas masks.

Shelters.
91热爆 shelters were built and there were different types. One the Anderson shelter this was built of metal and half sunk into the garden and covered with soil. My dad had one of these and we lived in the shelter when there were bombing raids. One other type was the Morrison shelter; again this was made of steel and was built in one of the down stairs rooms. My aunt had one of these types and as a young boy I slept in this shelter many times. Then there was the street shelter they were made from brick with a concrete roof and could house many families and there were two in the street where I lived.
Bombing

From 1940 we were bombed by many planes not only in the daytime but also at night time. At nighttime houses, factories, hospitals had to have blackout curtains over their windows, bus, car, lorries and other road users had to have very dim lights this was done so the enemy pilots could not see what was on the ground and drop their bombs.
My dad was an air raid warden he would go around the streets to see if everyone had their blackout curtains in position if not he would go and tell them to put the blackout curtains up. Our windows would have sticky strips over them this was to stop glass splintering when bombs were exploding. When there were bombing raids my mum, brother and myself would get under the table till they had passed.

The raids these became less as the war years went by but then in 1944 the V1 or Doodlebugs as they were called started bombing southern England. They were launched from France. They made loud thundering sound flew without aircrews. Once the fuel was used up the Doodlebug would just drop out of the skies and explode on the place below them, schools, houses, factories, hospitals killing many people.
I can remember my Dad telling me he heard a Doodlebug going over him, then the engine stopped. He said that he did not look up, just ran as fast as he could to the nearest shelter.
The house that Auntie Nin, Uncle Nobby and their two children Brian and June lived in, was at Thornton Heath when they were bombed and still inside. They were all lucky to get out with only minor injuries. Aunty Nin still has the picture showing what was left of the house.

Nanny lived in Streatham and their garden backed onto a factory. One evening a Doodlebug flying over head its engine seemed to stop, then the engines started again and crashed half a mile away. They were very lucky.
The next bomb that came was the V2 rocket which was launched from Germany and fired into the atmosphere to England. They just dropped out of the skies without warning causing much damage, killing and frightening many people.

Ration Books.
Every person had a ration book in England and you could only buy small amounts each week when you purchased an item you had to hand over one token to the shop. The government had worked out the amount of food the people needed to live on. Rationing meant everybody got the same amount.
Les writes that as a small boy, my mum use to give me powdered egg and when cooked it tasted just like real egg. Most of our food was imported but due to the war very little came to England. Many people had allotments and many gardens, parks and commons were used to grow extra food. My dad had an allotment to grow vegetables, and one day I went with my dad to the allotment only to find some of the vegetables had been taken, where the vegetables had been money had been left in their place. As a young boy after the war, my mum gave me my first banana I started to try to eat it, mum stopped me you have to peel the banana first, one of many things we had to learn after the war.
Pam writes that her Mum and Dad kept chickens in the garden and used to eat the eggs, one day she and her sister Carole were to have chicken for dinner but they found out it was their chickens. they would not eat it.
Her mother with her sweet ration used to buy her special sherbet lemon dabs they cost one and a half pennies in old money and she can still remember the taste now.
Rationing was not only for food but clothes, petrol, sweets and many other items. When the war was over rationing went on for a few more years in some cases ten more years.

Evacuation.
From the beginning of the war children were evacuated mainly from the cities to escape the bombing, some went overseas to Canada, Australia and other went to the English countryside to be safe. Pam went with her sister and Mum to the north of England where they stayed for six months but were all unhappy due to having nits and wanted to come home.
Ron went with his brother to their aunts near Maidstone Kent which was in the countryside. We used to hide in the corn fields from my aunt when it was bedtime. My brother used to send letters home to our mum and dad saying we wanted to come home and I use to run away from school as I was not happy there.
School.
Ron writes that when we returned home from our Aunts I could not go to my old school as it had been bombed. We were all split up and sent to another school in Mitcham. This carried on for quite a while. When this school was bombed my mum and dad had a class in their front room, every day until other schools could be found for the children. Pam remembers that when the school bell sounded, all the children had to go to the shelter in the school grounds, remembering to take their gas masks for safety and only return when the safety be!! rang.
Holidays.
Nobody had holidays to the seaside as all the beaches were blocked to stop the enemy from landing should they had invade us.
Ron鈥檚 first holiday to the seaside was late 1946 when he was 7 and thought that the sea was a wide river.
Pam鈥檚 first holiday to the seaside was in 1948 when she was 10.

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