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When telling my grandparents about the ‘Newsround’ challenge to gather as many memories as possible about World War II they both immediately started telling stories of their time during the war and so the following are some of their recollections which they are happy for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ to keep. My grandparents are Margaret and Horace Mackay who are now 87 and 89 respectively and live in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

Grandpa worked in the family firm of ‘G Mackay and Sons’ in Harrogate and was at the cinema on the night when war was declared. He immediately went home to find his mother sitting with a candle, afraid to put the electric light on. She was crying because she knew that her three sons would have to go into the army or similar and also that she had already lived through World War I and knew what a terrible time was to come. When war had been declared Grandpa was then 23 tried to join the Air Force but was too old, he said they had to be 16 — 18 years old to join, but many boys had joined earlier.

At this time Grandpa was working for the family firm and they started making munitions for the war in late 1939 continuing to sell petrol, everyone was rationed on petrol and had to have coupons, the garage also had mechanics and an engineering service during the day. The munitions were separate and they made aircraft parts for planes, Swordfish torpedo bomber parts were made, and landing gear, they also made all parts and landing gear for Lancaster, Manchester, Hurricane and Spitfire planes. Other things they made included parts for anti air craft swivels which swivelled and fired a cable up into the air, the firm received quite a few letters to say that aircraft had flown into these cables and this had brought down lots of German planes.

Grandpa worked at night and walked to the garage in the pitch black, he went on the concrete path across The Stray — 200 acres of grassland and if he couldn’t hear his footsteps he knew he’d veered off the path! He was in charge of the nightshift and had about 12 men on nights and about 40 girls, working the milling machines, lathes, shavers, grinders and other machinery. Because there was so much noise, the machinery noise was deafening, they had to have a man on firewatch because they could not hear the sirens if they sounded to warn them of an attack. Everybody had to wear overalls. He worked the night shifts for 4 ½ years, developed a stomach ulcer and only saw daylight on a Sunday because it was dark when they arrived and left work with the night workers sleeping during the day. It was during 1944 when ‘G Mackay and Sons’ stopped producing munitions and the war was virtually over except for Japan.

His strongest memory of the war was when he heard a terrific bang when one or two bombs had been dropped and he saw a German fighter plane just going up into the clouds, the bomb fell on the Hotel Majestic in Harrogate and the blast did extensive damage. Another night he had been in the canteen at about 3am for a meal break when it was just starting to get light and someone took the blackout blinds down and shouted, ’Parachutists!’ Everyone thought it was the enemy and came out of their houses wanting to know if they were being invaded, in fact it was the crew from a British Lancaster bomber that couldn’t release its bombs, so had flown out towards the countryside, setting its auto pilot and the crew had bailed out before the plane crashed north of Harrogate avoiding hurting innocent people.

Grandpa had an MG car and all cars had to have special covers with a slit in them fitted over the headlights so that only a small glimmer of light showed them the road ahead so that enemy aircraft could not spot them, but grandpa could drive with no lights on the car at all to make it even safer and drove from Harrogate to Gouthwaite with no lights during an air raid. He also remembers that the Germans used chandelier flares so that they could see better from the air and be more accurate with their bombs. Everybody was rationed for food, petrol, clothing, but grandpa just ate whatever food he was given for which he was grateful and everyone had to carry a gas mask and an identity card which had your personal number on it and had to have with them at all times. He didn’t like the enemy and felt very strongly about the Holocaust. Because grandpa had to sleep during the day he didn’t get much information because there was not much on the radio at night, but the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Service was his main source of news.

At the time of the War my gran was 21 and only engaged to grandpa. She was sitting in the car of her employer who was visiting some friends and he told her that war had been declared when he returned to the car, ‘God help us, war has been declared’ he exclaimed. When she heard this she knew that her only brother would have to fight and as her father was dead she knew she would be responsible for looking after her mother and the home. Gran couldn’t go into the forces because she had a problem with her heart so went into the Ministry. She worked for MAP — which was the branch of a Ministry which paid bills for the expenses of the war and dealt with the various companies who worked towards the war effort. When they received bills from ‘G Mackay and Sons’ her higher clerical officer passed these bills to her to deal with as they were from the Mackay firm!
They had Ration books with points for clothing if you were getting married you were also given utility points which you could use to buy towels and sheets etc. Everything had a special utility mark on it and they were very good things, but you had to spend points carefully. Food was rationed, but Gran lived in the country and so were very lucky and had many extras including a lady her mother knew as ‘the Butter Lady’ and she gave them some butter, they were also given eggs and a gentleman with an allotment provided them with vegetables, in turn they helped other people with things. Cigarettes were rationed into bundles of 5. Parachutes were made of pure silk so if an aircraft crew came down and ladies knew someone who could get some parachute silk they would make their own underwear!

In those days ladies did not wear trousers normally, they wore suits being a skirt, jacket and a blouse for the office, but when they were on firefighting duty they had to wear appropriate clothes being trousers. Gran travelled from Pateley Bridge (about 16 miles from Harrogate) on the bus into Harrogate to work at the Ministry each day and this took about an hour. Like everyone else Gran had to have her gas mask with her at all times and everyday at 11.00am in the Ministry an alarm was sounded and they had to put on their gas masks and have them checked. One night at Pateley Bridge, her home village, she was recruited to assemble gas masks, they had all the different parts laid out and then had to spend all night assembling them all, it was the law that everyone must carry a gas mask at all times.

Communications were not as good as they are today and the newspapers tried to report as much as possible, there was no television, so everyone listened very carefully to the radio and the news bulletins from London. During the war there was a German broadcaster called Lord Haw-haw who told terrible stories about the English troops, saying that they were all being killed.

During the war there was no extra noise than in peace time, except if you lived near a munitions place where they were working through the night, or when the siren went off to alert people that an air raid was about to begin, when it was all clear bells rang to let people know it had finished. Gran’s sister, Muriel lived near Newcastle and spent every night in the air raid shelter with her children for safety.

Gran’s strongest memory of the was when the bomb fell on the Hotel Majestic in Harrogate, this was also Grandpa’s very vivid memory, but it was different for Gran because she worked in another hotel, ‘The Hydro’, now known as The Old Swan and that particular day she had a very bad migraine and was unable to go to the office. The bomb fell and the blast blew out the window next to her desk, when she returned the next day all her desk and blotting paper were covered in shards of glass, if she had been at work the previous day she would have probably been very badly injured. Another memory was when visiting her uncle near Newcastle he took her down to the docks very early one morning when it was still dark to see a battleship launched into the Tyne, the ship slid into the sea and there was a ‘hush’ all around the people as it went out to sea.

The time she was most afraid, was when her brother came home on leave and told her and the family that he had volunteered to go to Burma and fight in the Burmese War which was a very terrible war and many people were never seen again after they went, but her brother was flown back to England when he was in danger of having his leg removed following an injury, but it was saved, this incident did however start an illness which he eventually died from. In contrast her happiest day was when her brother did return home having been in many hospitals following his fighting in Burma and he came home, opened the door and threw in his big green Ghurkha bush hat, looked in and said, ‘I’m back Peg.’ (Gran’s name is Peggy)

Gran remembers many terrible things being done, but also that most enemy fighters were just normal boys who were being made to go and fight for their country, our boys were the same, and had to fight for their country. Many Germans were not evil men, just as our boys were not all evil.

War was virtually over and Gran and Grandpa had gone to Scarborough to celebrate which was where they heard that Peace had been declared. Even though petrol was still very tightly rationed they went to Whitby but found that town was still acting as though the war was still going on and no celebrations so they turned around and went back to Scarborough where the town was decorated and people were dancing and singing war songs on the pier. They had also decorated their little MG car with flags and patriotic things and drove back home to Harrogate where they still live today. They both agreed it had been a terrible time, but also a time of camaraderie and certainly in the rural areas everyone had helped each other.

This story won the CÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Newsround Press Pack Project and I was able, as part of my prize to look around the 'Living Museum' in St. James Park London and present the Duchess of Cornwall with a posy when Prince Charles and she offically opened the museum on Monday 4th July 2005. Anna Mackay aged 14 - Harrogate Grammar School North Yorkshire

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