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I was seven when the war began and lived with my mother,father,two sisters and a brother at SouthCliveStreet,Grangetown,Cardiff.I helped my father erect an Anderson shelter at the end of our garden, half submerging it in a hole we dug and then covering it with the excavated earth.At first because there were no heavy air raids we didn't use the air raid shelter but sheltered beneath the stairs in the pantry. My Dad won two live ducks in a raffle and he put the ducks in the air raid shelter to feed and fatten them up.
Although only seven I was pretty street wise having gained experience in other parts of cardiff before moving to South Clive Street. In Cardiff in those days most inner City areas had boy gangs and our area was no exception. Our gang consisted of Eddie,John,Malcolm,Chrissie,Teddy,Ronald,Billy,Ikey,Graham,Gordon,Dennis and myself. Except for Dennis I was the youngest.
All the boys read comics and boys magazines such as the Hotspur,Wizard,Rover etc. and they all contained stories of german paratroopers landing or spies and soldiers being landed from submarines and them being spotted or even captured by gangs of boys. We decided that as the sea (Bristol Channel) was almost on our doorstep.Cardiff docks was only across the river. Penarth docks was even nearer and the oil terminal just beyond the Windsor slipway was only a few hundred yards away we had better do something about it.
Our side of the mouth of the river Taff consisted of a few hundred yards of tide fields,ending at an earth bank about 12to 14 feet high. Between the Windsor slip end which included a field used as a barrage balloon site and the marl was a depression, oval in shape about the size of a football stadium. This depression was about 20 feet deep. We decided to dig some caves into the side of the earthen sea wall and the depression where we could keep watch out over the chanel. Having dug these caves we needed some equipment of sorts to put in them.
Prior to the war access to the Windsor Slip area but known locally as the Ferry, because of the one time ferry that used to cross the river Ely from the Grangetown side to Penarth, was gained from the end of South Clive Street. When the war began this area was closed off and a Special Constable Sid Radford manned a Police Post there.
The field at the end of our road became a Balloon Barage site, and disused buildings on the Windsor Slipway pier were coverted into an Army Ordnance Store.
Our gang were well aware of what was beyond the Police post. We could still access the area by walking across the tide fields. We discovered that all manner of equipment was stored at the Ordnance Depot out in the open, protected only by a chain link fence.
So we helped ourselves to shovels,felt covered water containers,small sacks of anti gas ointment, and a quantity of hand grenade cases. All of this equipment we stored in the caves we had dug ready for use should we come across any Germans.
One amusing point in digging the caves we dug up a small silver cup. There followed an argument as to who should keep it. This was settled by Billy chopping it up and giving us a piece each. Some years later my youngest brother found a Roman coin not far from where we had dug the cave.
As the war progressed the air raids became more frequent and heavier.When I was about eight yesars of age I joined Cardiff Gas Boxing club. There were tow hospitals in Cardiff Rookwood and Whitchurch where soldiers injured in the war were recovering. It was decided to put on a boxing dusplay for them A ring was made upof chairs facing outward in a large Ward. Four lads were fitted with large 16ounce gloves which came upto my elbow. We were then blindfolded turned around and around by our seconds until we were giddy and then pushed into the centre of the ring. We were swinging punches into mid air, bumping into each other, falling down etc.This continued for three rounds. The soldiers thought it hilarious and no doubt did them some good. Three of these shows with other clubs were put on at the hospitals.The house I lived in was damaged but not to any great extent. A bomb fell on the Mansion House at the junction of our street and Ferry Road and the family in the house named Noble were all killed as were some men who had been sheltering from the raid against the mansion wall. We had a land mine fall at the other end of the street destroying about five houses but fortunately nobody was killed.A stick of bombs fell on the tide fields near the Ordnance Depot. The craters filled with sea water and we had three small lakes for a few years. One day in the summer I was in the garden when I saw a plane fly low over out house. I couldn't see any marking on it. It flew over towards Cardiff Docks where it banked and I saw a number of what looked like small dots falling. I later transpired that it was a lone German raider which dropped its bombs onto a ship called the San Philipe in Cardiff Docks. Mt Dad was working nearby but was not injured, but some of the men on the ship were killed.As the raids got heavier we went into the air raid shelter at the beginning of each night. The walls of the shelter ran with condensation and by morning the floor of the shelter was a pool of water. Dad was lsater issued with bags of crumbled cork and told to paint the walls and throw the cork onto the wet paint. The cork was meant to absorb the condensation. I helped with this task but it didn't work. Everything continued to be soaken wet. I became to recognise the sound of german aircraft from those of our own. German aircraft had a distinct Rumba rumba beat. Mt mother allowed me to stand outside the shelter behind a blast wall we had built to keep the reat of the family inside the shelter informed of the conduct of the raid.I could tell from the glow in the sky whether it was Swansea,Newport or Bristol that was under attack. When it was overhead I went into the shelter. Dad who worked on the docks also had to do fire watch duty. Only Mr Norris the head fire warden had a steel helmet. Dad used to go out holding a metal ash bin lid over his head. I think there was more likelyhood of being injured bu falling shrapnel than by a bomb. After raids plenty of shrapnel could be found in the street even sometimes embedded in window frames. After incendiary raids partially burned bombs and plenty of incendiary bomb fins could be found. A hobby grew of collecting shrapnel and bomb parts. Despite the raids we continued to go to school and sometimes the roads looked as if they were covered with spaghetti with the amount of fire hose left connected to hydrants. It was decided that Cardiff should be protected by a smoke pall over the City to stop it being seen from the air. To achieve this a convoy of smoke screen lorries left the docks area and travelled around the City to the outlying countryside where the fuel was set alight. This convoy passed the end of our street each night and gangs of boys would lay in wait to jump onto the backs of the lorries and have a ride. When three or four boys jumped onto the back of a lorry the following lorry driver would sound his horn to warn the one in front. Unknown to him some more boys would be getting onto the back of his lorry and the one behind him would sound his horn. This continued all along the convoy as if pandemonium had been let loose. They tried to stop it by putting specials in certain areas but the boys just moved to another spot where the lorries slowed.

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