��ѿ��ý

This is an interview with my grandfather, who was 9 year old when the war began. He lived in the North East of England during the war.

“My most vivid memory was the day that the war was declared. It was a Sunday morning. On that morning my brother and I had to go with our father to the allotment, to do our chores, like tiding and digging. About 11 o’clock, the sirens went off, and I had no idea what they were for; we had only heard them being tried out… Our dad knew what they were for. He said to us “Come on lads get the tools put away in the shed and get things tidied us.” So we tidied the things away and went on our way home.

On our way home we saw the air wardens running around with their gas masks and telling everyone to get home. They said that forty German bombers had been spotted over South Shields, but they hadn’t, it was just a panic. When we got to the top of our street my mam was already on her way up because she was worried about us.

When we arrived home, everybody was at their doors talking. It did not take us long for things to fall into place and for us to get used to it. Also if the all clear siren did not alarm before midnight, we got half a day off school”

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.