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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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The Day War Broke Out: My New Bicycle, North Shields

by Landor

Contributed by 
Landor
People in story: 
Ronald Sampson
Location of story: 
North Shields
Article ID: 
A1937676
Contributed on: 
30 October 2003

My Member name is Landor. I am now 71 years old, and so I was born in 1932. I was 7 years old on the very day that WW2 started.....September 3rd 1939.
I had been delighted to find a new bicycle waiting for me at the foot of my bed. I was getting used to my new bike, when the first of many Air Raid warnings sounded. My mother dashed out of the house and dragged me screaming into the house, and we took shelter in a cupboard under the stairs. I was more concerned about my new bicycle than any unknown fear of what the German bombers might do if they raided us on that very first day. The All Clear sounded before very long, and so I rushed outside and there was my new bike just where it had fallen, and was still perfect and undamaged.

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