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“What can you remember about the War, Grandpa?”
The question that my grandson asked.

Well where do I start, I remember the day the news came through on the radio on Sunday morning 3rd September 1939, that war had been declared. I was with my parents in our kitchen, both my mother and father looked shocked and upset although I think they had been expecting it to happen. It would have been just before my 6th birthday, and that war had been declared meant little to me, but I was puzzled by my parent’s reaction, my father had been wounded in the first world war, and had suffered from it ever since, he had an idea of what was to come.
The first few months were just the same as always, but there were new additions to our lives, such as “Air Raid Warnings” and “All Clear” sirens. People were told to go to a place of shelter at the sound of an “Air Raid Warning” and come out only after the “All Clear”. To most adults then it was an annoying joke in those early days. However, in the years that followed, it was no joke!
I was born in Bristol, and we had large docks near the centre of the city, a very large railway goods marshalling yard, and an aircraft manufacturer about 8 miles from the city centre. They were obvious targets for the German airforce.
In 1941, bombers were to come over night after night to bomb prime targets all over the British Isles, and Bristol had its fair share of air raids. Bristol was the forth most heavily bombed city in the country during the war.
First the sirens would sound the wailing noise that told us enemy aircraft were around, and no matter what time of day or night it was you went to the shelter. By now most houses had some form of shelter; we had an Anderson shelter sunken into our small back garden. My father had erected this and considering the size, it was quite cosy. The shelter could sleep 4 adults, and Dad had installed some wooden frames that were used as beds, one above the other, on both sides of the shelter. The shelter sides and top were covered with a good depth of earth for protection. We were to spend an awful lot of nights in our shelter. I can still feel the cold night air as my mother carried me to the shelter in the pitch black of night, dressed only in my pyjamas and perhaps a blanket around me.
The night-time was so very dark due to the “Blackout”. There were no streetlights, and no buildings were allowed to show even a small chink of light in case it gave the bombers a pinpoint that there was someone or something below them. Once inside the shelter, we would try to sleep, but it was very difficult.
About two miles from our house was a battery of anti-aircraft guns, and they were timed to all fire together, making a “box bombardment” thus making it more hazardous for the German bombers. When they fired it was so loud, and the ground shook, nobody could sleep. I can remember hearing the particles of “Shrapnel” falling onto the earth-covered top of the shelter. I remember the whistle of bombs falling, the explosions, and the uneven throbbing of the German bomber’s engines, as they flew over the darkened land, many times to be lit by numerous fires of buildings and houses that had been hit by bombs, all to often killing people nearby. I can remember one night when my father, who was on firewatching duty, came into our shelter, and he was very upset. Soon I found out why, we went outside and looked in the direction of the centre of Bristol, the sky was as red as a beautiful sunset, only this was the red of fires. That night considerable damage was done to the dock areas and a large part of the shopping centre of the city was all but wiped out. The shopping centre remained partly in ruins until well after the war had finished.
More embedded memories.
The sight, after a night air raid, of an Anderson shelter on the roof of a house, the occupants had all died, whilst the house they had left for the shelter appeared to only have its rear windows blown in.
Seeing several Bristol buses, that had been destroyed after a daylight bombing raid, also with loss of life.
In September 1941 I was about to return, after lunch, to school, which was only a short distance away, when I saw hundreds of aircraft flying very high above the city, as no siren had been heard, we thought “those are ours”. Shortly after getting to school the unmistakable sound of bombs exploding was heard, and everyone was rushed to the school shelters. No lessons that afternoon and we all finished early. I ran home only to be told by my mother “Do not go onto the front”, (the main Gloucester to Bristol road and the main route to the aircraft factory). I did not wish to disobey my mother, but I was curious as to why I was not allowed on the front, so I went upstairs to our lounge, which over looked the road. I saw a continuous line of traffic heading to the city centre, anything that would move seemed to be in the slow moving line, and all were carrying bandaged people, and it seemed to go on for ever. You must remember that at this time, there was hardly any traffic due to petrol rationing, and unlike today only a very few people had cars anyway. The bombers had carried out a daylight raid on the aircraft works, and a lot of people were killed or injured and extensive damage had been done to the works, although the production of aircraft did not stop.
The biggest hardship that everyone suffered from, from the start of the war until quite sometime after the war finished was rationing. Everything was rationed; clothes, shoes, foodstuffs, petrol, sweets, and things that were not rationed were in very short supply. My mother looked after a sweet and tobacconist shop, and I used to help her count the sweet coupons every week
Because we live on an island most of our supplies come from overseas, and many items were in short supply. I did not know what a banana or grapes were until the war was over. Living on an island like this meant that these things had to come in by ship. The war cost hundreds of ships and crews lives trying to keep essential supplies coming in across the seas. Nearly every week saw a headline in the paper, “Another so many ships sunk” As well as the Merchant navy taking a lot of punishment to deliver our supplies, the Royal Navy also lost many gallant ships and crews trying to protect our convoys, and sea lanes from the German navy, including the dreaded “U-Boat”. Also the Royal Air Force without whose determination during the Battle of Britain in 1940 could have led to an invasion by German troops. Most of our Army was in 1940 recovering from the evacuation of Dunkirk
Those are some of my memories now, some 60 years on, but it was not so bad at the time. The day after a night time air raid my friends and I would go out looking for shrapnel, and if you were very lucky you might even find a piece of a “Jerry” aircraft, what a prize these bits were. I had a box full of very sharp pieces of the shrapnel for years, a complete incendiary bomb (that had been defused), and some bits of “Jerry” aircraft. Whatever happened to it all?
Shrapnel was the fragments of an explosive shell, fired at aircraft, in an effort to shoot it down. To airmen it was called “Flack”
Towards the end of 1943 and early 1944 saw a build up of American troops all over the country, and Bristol was home to some for a short time prior to the D-Day landings in Normandy. The next collecting craze began, Chewing gum wrappers, or if the “Yanks” were friendly, some with gum inside. We had never seen the strip chewing gum before, Spearmint, Juicy Fruit, Doublemint, names you all know now, but were all new to us then. How we sweet starved children liked “The Yanks”, “got any gum chum” was the call.
Fortunately the war came to an end, but not quite my story. The hundreds of troops from America were going home. A large number came through Temple Meads railway station in Bristol, and with my friends, who were now about 11 or 12, we would go collecting “Train Numbers” at the station. We would be asked “Hey kid, get us some papers” and money would be passed out of the railway carriage window, we would run to the paper kiosk, buy as many papers as the money would pay for, and then run back to the train. It did not matter which window the papers went in, but what did matter, to us lads, was what came back out, coffee in little tins, sugar, sweets, not forgetting the chewing gum, and Captain Marvel comics, (a little like Batman or Superman)
In those dark days every one wanted to help any way they could, even us youngsters.

To me, now I have had the experience, I hope that it will not happen again, but we should never forget the debt we all owe to the many that died to keep Britain free.

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