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Further memories from my experiences throughout WW2 as a little girl between 4 years and ten years of age:

My late Mother did various shifts for the Birmingham Corporation 'buses. She was the first female conductress to travel from Birmingham City Centre to Wednesbury . I think this was about 1940. As the 'bus arrived to pick up the early morning workers, they all cheered her. Previous to this it had always been male conductors, but most of them had been called up for service to their Country.

She said she had been in every public air raid shelter from Birmingham to Dudley, many of them flooded so you were up to your ankles in cold dirty water. When the raids were on all the passengers had to shelter and sometimes she and her driver travelled back to the depot with all the windows blown out through a bomb blast and in darkness.

Some of her shifts were early morning to Nuffields( I think they were making ammunitions). She would take the day shift there and bring the night shift home. She told me how she got to know where these people had to get off and they were so tired they would fall asleep and she would give them a nudge when their stop came up. One gentleman would bring Mother a neatly wrapped parcel which contained cold toast for her to have with her cup of tea later. I don't think she ate it, not knowing where it had come from. She was always grateful and thanked him.

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