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This story has been submitted by Alison Tebbutt, Derby CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mrs Iola Davies. The author has given her permission and understands the site's terms and conditions.

This letter was written by my mother in London, to my father in the R.A.F. IN India on the 31st January 1944.

‘Each evening after I have put the children (aged seven and four) to bed, I collect all their day clothes and put them in a small case in which I always keep my important papers, receipts etc. also a few sweets and a book for each of them. I put the case in the bedroom, along with our outdoor clothes, two spare blankets, scarves and two small rugs and I put them together with my bag and my mother’s and the torch. This I do every evening in spite of the fact that we often go for two or three weeks without a raid at all, but at least I am prepared. If the siren should go off during the evening, then I dash down to the children while mother puts the guard around the fire, sees that all the gas taps are out and puts all the lights out. Then she follows me. Graham usually wakes when the siren sounds and gets up and puts his shoes and socks on, woolly hat and overcoat and scarf, helmet and gloves and boots and then we all set off.

Here I must say how good the children are. If it’s twelve o’clock in the morning they never make a murmur. They do their best to hurry and help me. Their behaviour in the shelter is excellent, and they certainly never cry and take not the slightest notice of the noise above, except when the barrage occasionally gets very heavy. Even then they are not nervous, only thrilled. Everyone over there marvels at them, they are so good. About seven other babies come there, but they are all much younger than our two. It only takes a minute to reach the shelter. It’s a quite a large one, divided into four portions and is almost opposite our house. Quite often, it is in one sense an unnecessary journey, as more often than not we neither hear or see anything, and then the ‘all clear’ goes quite soon. At least I do feel that by taking them over to a very strong reinforced shelter, I am doing all in my power to guard them from harm. The barrage is simply magnificent just like thunder rolling steadily all around us, with an occasional loud burst from nearby gun site. Do you know, the sound does reassure one somehow-the feeling that so many men and women are there working hard to keep those miserable few away.

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