Air Raids and Other Bombing

Smoke Screens

I remember as a child the light bins in the streets of Castle Bromwich. They were to make a smoke screen to...

Lost Shoe

I worked at the Telephone Exchange in Ipswich... When the alarms used to go at night, there were two...

The Park

We went to the park on a Sunday, the day after war was declared. As a child I'd expected to see a...

Blown Away

I was clearing an explosive minefield with other soldiers, having made friends with one, he stood on a mine...

Chimney hopping

I was going to the cinema with my brother and we were walking down Olive Road to the Lido and we could...

Stewart Parry, When War Was Declared

I was onboard a Union Castle Liner that had just set off from Cape Town on route to Southampton when the...

Dancing Lights to The Vibrations of The Guns

I remember there were lights on the table and they danced with the vibrations of the guns....

Dog Fight over Worthing

We headed to the Pier Hotel where we were taken in to shelter. Above us we saw a dog fight taking place....

Red Sky at Night

I remember being taken into the garden and shown a red sky. I thought it was the sunset but it was Coventry...

Deep Sleep

During the war my cousin was sleeping in a cottage. The Germans dropped a bomb, and made a crater close to...

Buzz Bomb

It turned out to have been a buzz bomb....

Baby in the washing basket

I was 10 years old when war broke out so I don't remember much but I do remember that when we had...

Close Encounter

Running parralel is Lansdowne Road interlinked with Park Road. I was standing at the cornor of Lansdowne...

My Cousin

During the war, my cousin was sleeping in a cottage....

A Short Story

My dad worked in the Navy Minesweepers....

The Bombing of Pembroke Dock

The very first German 'plane I ever saw flew over Pembroke Docks, my mother assured me that it was...

Red hot shrapnel

Collected at the Help the Aged coffee room in Cambridge, by Philippa Geering. In Newport, one of the first...

War Memories

I lived in Ireland. At the age of four I can remember standing at the garden gate and seeing the planes go...

First Day

I joined up in 1943 and went to Berwick on Tweed to train. The very first day a sea mine hit the...

Bombing of the Goods Station

Thelma lived very close to the Goods Station, which was directly bombed in September 1941... When the goods...

Cornflakes

An unexploded bomb dropped in Ilkeston... I was a very naughty girl as I hid the cornflakes to prevent our...

Badges that shine in the dark

The story was originally recorded by members of the Brampton Museum Newcastle Under Lyme. The blackouts...

German air raid

I remember my father getting me out of bed one night and taking me on the landing to see the aeroplanes......

'All Clear' The Chicken

There was a chicken in the South Norwood area who would always crow after the air raids had finished,...

Gas Masks

Mu mum used to work at "Gas Mask" on Garden Street. Now it's called Newmans Slippers....

The Enemy

Feeling sorry for them, I shouted my mum to make some tea. Their Sergeant shouted back- 'No tea for...