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In 1936 I was 12 years old living in the Dales, Coventry. After school we would go home and have our tea with our family and then go back to school to sleep in the air raid shelters under the school. Eventually me and my younger brother were evacuated to Blackpool to stay with our grandparents. As kids we found the whole experience very exciting and a bit of joke going to Blackpool. My grandparents lived in Squires Gate near an airport that carried out trips to the Isle of Man. One day we were all at home and we heard an aircraft above. My brother suddenly yelled: “Get under the table else Gerry will blow your bloody head off.” My granddad was an ardent Methodist and chased my brother round the house with a stick because he swore. We spent two years in Blackpool and heard very little about the war as the north was not really effected. I remember the day the war was announced finished. Me and my friends, along with many other kids throughout Coventry, took hammers to all the street shelters and smashed them all in celebration. My younger sister was even born under a morrisons shelter in our front room.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Krysten Hall CSV ��ѿ��ý Coventry and Warwickshire volunteer on behalf of Philip Cross and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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