From: Tom Holloway (tom.holloway@u3a.org.uk)
Date: Wed Mar 14 2001 - 10:22:43 PST
. Hello again Charlotte -- here are some answers for you...... > 1. How old were you when the war broke out? > 2. If you were a child did you have to be evacuated? > 3. Where did you live during the war? I was 6, and was evacuated briefly in 1939 but then the expected invasion by Germany didn't happen and my parents brought me back to London in April 1940. We lived in South London (Fulham). > 4. Can you remember any specific bombing attacks? Yes -- although most bombing was on the docks and the East End of London (railways/docks/warehouses) raids would go over our part of London but only the occasional stick of bombs came our way. (I should explain that a bomber drops its load sequentially in a line known as a 'stick' and you could often tell if a 'stick' was coming towards you. Also, German planes made quite a different sound from our own planes and we soon learnt when to duck into a shelter or under the table). > 5. Do you remember the day when it was announced Britain was going to war? Yes. Particularly I remember getting my gas mask from the Town Hall -- I was disappointed because I wanted one of the Mickey Mouse type, but I was already too old. > 7. If your town/city didnt get blitzed where was the nearest place hit? About 50 yards away - my mum and I heard the stick heading towards us and we ducked under my bed. > 8. Were the any highlights of the war? Yes -- I can remember how thrilled I was when I climbed up onto the roof of our buildings to look for shrapnel, which all us boys collected (I lived in Lewis Trust Buildings) and actually found the complete fin end of an incendiary bomb. I foolishly swapped it for 10 american comics, but I think I was diddled. And I can remember walking to Putney because we heard there was a shop selling ice-cream, and when we got there they still had some left. > 9. Did communities stick together? Very much so; there was nothing like the climate of fear that Londoners now live in, locking their doors and not being able to leave bikes outside shops, poor things. We kids could roam at will and me and my mates used to go to Wimbledon Common most saturdays, just to run around and play. We walked everywhere of course. > 11.Did education remain the same? As far as I could tell -- yes. > 12. Did you use any type of shelter? Yes -- we had a very solid shelter built for our square -- but in order to discourage courting couples it was mostly locked until the sirens went off. > 13. Do you remember what daily routines stopped for example post service? None. Bread (delivered on a cart pulled by the bread-man). Milk (pulled by a pony). Coal (delivered by two whacking great shire horses). > 15. How often did you feel scared? I can't remember actually being scared at any time. > 16. Do you think Britain deserved to win the war? Yes. But I also now believe that our thousand-bomber raids on civilian targets (Hamburg, Dresden) were unjustified. > 18. Wer emost public places kept open for example pubs? > 19. Were spirits ketp high? > 20. In your opinion what was war like on a whole? Yes -- cinemas and dance halls were open and popular -- in the cinema a slide would be put up to tell you if the sirens had sounded, but most people stayed there because there were always roof-spotters (Air Raid Wardens) who would tell you if the bombers were headed towards us, and if you had paid one-and-threepence to see Roy Rogers you weren't going to chuck it away.... ================ Tom Holloway tom.holloway@u3a.org.uk tom@holloways.org <=== private email http://timewitnesses.org 01926-771772 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~> Make good on the promise you made at graduation to keep in touch. Classmates.com has over 14 million registered high school alumni--chances are you'll find your friends! http://us.click.yahoo.com/l3joGB/DMUCAA/4ihDAA/rIBVlB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: timewitnesses-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/