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When I started school in September 1939, the nun in charge of the infants department took all of us into a classroom and we had to practice getting our gasmask out of it鈥檚 waxed box and on properly by the count of three. When she was eventually satisfied, she told us that we must always carry our gasmask no matter where we went, and when we heard a whistle we had to immediately put it on even if you were in the toilet. I was four and a half at that time. What an introduction to school.

Liverpool had a very rough time with the bombing raids, being a major port for the Atlantic convoys. We were not evacuated and stayed in Liverpool. On one particular night a stick of bombs had been dropped on Mitford Street close by and a lot of people had been killed in their homes. I must point out that the air raid shelters were more for show than anything else. The concrete roof just sat on top of the walls and was not incorporated into them for strength. They were very uncomfortable inside, which is why many people stayed in their own homes, maybe under the stairs or such like. After one raid, a lot of people hearing about Mitford Street being bombed, went to see if they could help in any way. (I would be Five years old and assumed not to realise what was really going on, but I did.) I remember seeing arms and legs, I mean more than two of each, but there appeared to be no body, just maybe bits and pieces carried on stretchers covered by a blanket. It wasn鈥檛 until years later that I fully understood just what I had seen.

A few days before Mitford Street was hit (this street was alongside the hospital on Netherfield Road, sad that so many people were killed in that street, but it would not bear to think about just how many would have been killed if the bombs had gone on to the hospital) my mother and I, and my two sisters must have been with us, (but can鈥檛 remember) were in a neighbours house when my father called in. Being an A.R.P. warden he would have been told that in future church bells would not be rung unless as a warning that German Paratroopers were landing. That is why a whistle, and not a bell, was used in school. To make people really hate the Germans the propaganda was at a high pitch. An example I remember was that they killed women and children, and bayoneted them, and even threw small babies onto fires. The slogan at the time was 鈥淭he only good German was a dead one鈥�. It was quite common for adults to speak of such matters while we were in the same room. The adults assuming that being only 5 years old we would not understand. I was completely terrified, and with the bombing my nerves were shattered to such an extent I developed a very bad stammer. What happened was when I tried to speak, quite often, nothing came out.

At the top of Neil Street, Everton, where we lived, was an Irish family (the Dempseys) who could have gone, but stayed during the war, and lived on Northumberland Terrace which was 2 to 3 hundred yards long. Mr Dempsey and my father, being joiners, strengthened a ground/cellar room so that we could go there at night and have more comfort than in an air raid shelter. We were on our way to settle into the Dempsey鈥檚 home-made shelter for the night, with me leading, and I had just reached the junction when I looked down to the far end of Northumberland Terrace and pointed to a very low flying aircraft coming straight towards me. The next thing I remember was that a man had grabbed me and threw me behind a low wall with him on top of me. Years later I found out that it was a German aircraft and it was machine gunning. In fact a man was killed in bed during this incident. This didn鈥檛 help my nerves, or stammer/stutter.

With all the bombing we had, drains were damaged and also the water supply pipes. This led to the high probability of the water being contaminated. So, on a very regular basis we were given injections, and it was done at school. If you didn鈥檛 cry they gave you a sweet (but you got one anyway!). Another side effect was that the rats in the sewers were also disturbed, and I remember men, coming round every morning, rat catching. What they did was lift the main sewer grid that was in the middle of our street, and lower a cage, that a rat could get into but not out of, which had some bait inside. The following day, without fail, when they pulled out the cage there would be a rat or rats inside. One of the men would get a rat into a sack and ring its neck. This happened on a daily basis.

To use all the daylight possible, 鈥淒ouble Summertime鈥� was introduced. This meant that it was still light well after 11 o鈥檆lock at night but making it all quite confusing because it would be darker than usual in the mornings. Which certainly didn鈥檛 help our body clocks.

Almost everything was either rationed or scarce, including coal. There was fuel that was called Egglets. These were a moulded block of slack (coal dust) mixed with a small amount of cement/mortar. They were the size of a snowball. My mother heard that a local coal merchant had some in stock, so we went and joined the queue for them, but before we got there my mother let my eldest sister go ahead and join the queue before us, telling her not to recognise us. That day we got two lots of Egglets and I am sure that this was common practice. The average person lived in a house that had Gas lighting. One of the things to be done was to turn off the gas meter when an air raid warning was sounded, then if your house was hit at least there would be less chance of fire through the gas igniting.

There used to be mobile Ack Ack guns, and it was quite common in the evening to se one being set up locally. You got no sleep on those nights. Years later, I found out that the reason they were being moved around was to stop the Germans pinpointing them, therefore making them safer from pre-planned attacks. (Ack Ack guns were anti-aircraft guns).

After a raid one night, our gang found that a local shop had been hit, but was not totally destroyed. When it was clear, we climbed in and we found some sweet jars undamaged and we LOOTED them. I was about 5/6 years old at the time. Our sweet ration was 4 ounces per week, so children never got a lot of sweets, but they didn鈥檛 go without. Lots of adults gave their coupons to family and friends for children.

There were quite a lot of houses bombed in our district, including the two at the top of our street. An A.R.P. post had a direct hit and there was just nothing left. Sadly to say the wardens were killed, in fact, nothing could be found of them. We came back home one night after the all clear and were just settling in when there was a lot of shouting and whistle blowing. It turned out that the house that backed onto us, from Daniel Street, had an unexploded landmine that had gone through the roof, so we had to go to my mother鈥檚 sister鈥檚 in Opie Street and stay there until it was defused. Sometime later, along with other houses, my Aunt鈥檚 house was flattened but the family, were not in the house at the time.

'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 麻豆官网首页入口 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of Owen Connor and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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