From: Tom Holloway (tom.holloway@u3a.org.uk)
Date: Tue Mar 16 1999 - 17:43:48 PST
. On 09 March Gigi Dinham asked: > How old were you when World War 2 was taking place? Born in June 1933, so I can remember the start of the war and I was 12 when it finished. > What was the name of your school? Westminster City School - about 100 yards from Buckingham Palace. > What suburb did you live in? Fulham - a suburb in South-west London > Who did you live with and was your family relationship changed when > the war started? Mother and Father - my Father was in a 'reserved occupation' (Engineer) and so he was allowed to serve as Air Raid Warden and Home Guard instead of being called up for service. > Did you have a bomb shelter? If so, was it made out of the normal > sandbags or was it different? was it close to your house? Yes. Concrete (very thick) and in the yard of our tenement flats. It was big enough for the 50 families who were there to use it. > Were you ever caught out of a shelter when there was a bomb raid? Many times. Depends what you mean by a 'bomb raid'. Sirens would go and we could hear bombing somewhere in London but mostly people took no notice until the bombers started to come in your direction. Remember, there were hundreds of searchlights in the sky and we could see clearly what was happening. Bombers were kept higher than 2,000 feet by the barrage balloons. > Did you collect any souvenirs? It was our practice (the boys - all boys of my age) to go out collecting shrapnel after the all clear. Shrapnel that was still hot was especially prized - rusty bits also seemed to have added value. In 1944 I found the entire rear fins of an incendiary bomb on a local roof. I was stupid enough to swop it for 10 american comics, looking back now I'm sure it was worth more. > What was the most scary part of the war, and for what reason? No scary parts. I found it all very exciting. > Did you agree with the governments decisions during the war? Well I suppose so, but at that age one ate one's bread and dripping and got on with it. > What were the schools like during the war? Did you discuss the war > much in class? No. Not much to discuss. In a way - we WERE the war - it was all around us - it was normal and therefore we didn't discuss it. FOOD was talked about quite a lot. I listened to the news on the wireless of course; we all did, and after June 1944 everyone had a map of Europe stuck on the wall with different colour pins to show where the armies were. > Do you have any stories\memorable moments? If so could you please > tell me? - happy or sad, it doesent matter Lots. My favourite times were when we slept in the London Underground stations. The boozers would close at 11pm and everyone would grab their blankets and head for the tube. Then the singing - OH THE SINGING! Wonderful times - waiting for the last train to go through at 11.30pm - sometimes the tipsy mums would twitch up their skirts and do a bit of a dance. It was people at their best; determined to survive and stay cheerful. Lots of singing. No telly (stupid machine, chewing-gum for the eyes, designed to make people dozy and dopy). > Feel free to add any interesting comments\statements that you feel > would help me in my project. Yes - I've given you MY version, but we were OK. The rations were reasonable and we weren't bombed flat. Read some of the stories on http://visitweb.com/memories and read what it was like for others. Can you imagine being on the sharp end of a THOUSAND BOMBER RAID?? =================== Tom Holloway tom.holloway@u3a.org.uk Tel: (+44) (0) 1926-771772 Fax: (+44) (0) 1926-771707