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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Herbert's War

by EmmanuelCollege

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Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed by
EmmanuelCollege
People in story:
Herbert James Frost
Location of story:
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Background to story:
Civilian
Article ID:
A6956562
Contributed on:
14 November 2005

This story has been entered into the site by Hazel on behalf of Herbert James Frost and they fully understand the conditions

I went to London by train to visit some friends I knew and when I arrived it hit me how bad the war actually was. On the train platforms only a few feet away from the trains that passed people were sleeping there because they thought there would be more protection sleeping in the train station than at home. This made a great impression on me. When I arrived at my friend’s house there was a steel table which they had to sleep underneath each night because the air raids in London were numerous and frequent. They had steel tables because in the cities there were no gardens in which to build an Anderson shelter.

In Newcastle air raids were mainly aimed at the ship yards. So to make sure the Nazi’s couldn’t bomb the bridges or the ship yards they used these barrels of oil which were set on fire to create smoke so the bridges could not be seen to be destroyed. This was very unpleasant as I had to walk to work through this every morning. They also put up large balloons so the planes couldn’t dip down to bomb the ship yards, the women would be in charge of looking after them and every so often the balloons would get free and you would see them floating down the quayside with all these women chasing them.

When we were making our Anderson shelters my Grandad said he wanted a ramp so he could just run straight into it if there was an air raid. So we put a ramp in it. When there was an air raid my mother came into mine and my brother’s room telling us to get up to which I replied “Aw, come on Mam, five more minutes.” Once she had got us up and into the shelter we heard a crash from next door, which was my Grandad’s house. He had slipped into the Anderson shelter and it was full with water, he had a cold for ages afterward.

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