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My WAR as a boy

I was nine years old when war was declared so some of my memory’s may not be accurate as to the time but they did happen during ww2 in or around Wellingborough Northamptonshire one of my first memory’s was telling my mother when Greece was invaded not to worry as the Greeks had long knives to fight with so the Germans could not win. I also recall that the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ used to play the national anthems of all the country’s on our side when it closed down for the night to start with when the air raid siren went we all used to shelter under the stairs with the gas meter probably not the best place to be later on we had a steel table in the dining room with bed springs under and wire mesh round the outside I think it was called a Morrison shelter.
My job on a Saturday morning was to queue up for sausages at the local pork butchers the firm was called Myers in Cambridge street my next call was the cake shop further down the street I re member that we also used to get ships bisket's these were large and very thick and as hard as iron but we ate then after much sucking to make them soft.
My Dad was a good friend of the local butcher and I have a feeling that he used to help us out a bit in return for produce from dads allotment he had a large plot with fruit trees and soft fruit and grew enough vegetables to keep us going we had a large brick barn at the bottom of our garden this was always stocked with potatoes and onions etc the odd rabbet used to appear I can re member skinning one and nailing on the barn door rubbing salt in the back and leaving it to dry out.
My dad used to get up very early in the morning cycle to his allotment about a mile away for an hour then come home catch a bus to Rushden work in a shoe factory making flying boots for the RAF then back up to his allotment although there was a war on I do not ever re member being hungry he certainly looked after his family he served in ww1 with the first tank regiment but never talked about his experiences
Wellingborough had a few bombs dropped on it I was woken up one night by a big bang and things falling on the house the next thing I was a heavy weight landing on top of me it turned out to be my mother trying to save me from harm there was a camera factory quite close to our house I think it built cameras for aircraft jerry could have been after that but there was no lasting damage the roof we lost was repaired and we really were very lucky I was picking shrapnel up for days with a magnet boys will be boys .
I can recall a fiery glow in the sky when Coventry was on fire from the heavy bombing we did not know while the next day what had happened as Coventry is many miles from Wellingborough my wife can also re member a bomb dropping in a daylight raid behind the midland road post office she was in the cinema across the road with here mother and they both ran out and all the way home to Finedon 3 miles away we often laugh about this all these years later.
As children we really were free to roam about the countryside with no worry about any danger from nut cases that seem to be about now my grandchildren certainly don’t have the carefree life that we had as youngsters war or no war as a member of the local boys brigade the captain organised a trip to chelveston air base and we were given a tour of a flying Fortress bomber B52 I think the pilot said he was very sorry that he could not take us up talking about bombers in season we could take time out from school to help with potato and pea picking one a B52 came limping over the field we were working in about hedge high trying to reach its base at chelveston ? A few miles away us kids instantly started to pelt it with potatoes I have felt very badly about this and often wonder if any of the flyers are still alive that can re member this some incendry bombs were also dropped near to a foundry we found one in a field close by and dropped it in a brook close by and pushed it under a bridge with a stick how daft was that for all I know it may still be there it should be rusted away by now after all these years closer to D Day ammunitions were stored under cover in tin huts with open ends up the side road’s in the fields close to the hedge for cover of course we got into these and took cannon shells out took them home dismantled the shell took the sticks of cordite out found some thin aluminium tubing on the tip the YANKS used to put there scrap cut it into short pieces closed one end filled them with cordite left a short length hanging out lit it with a match and we had a rocket wow!.
It amazes me that all these memories have come back after all these years there must be many more tucked away in my brain if could coax them out

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