IN DEPTH: What was it like in an Anderson shelter? On page 8 of the magazine Brian tells us what it was like to be a schoolboy during the Blitz in London. Here he reveals more about sleeping in an Anderson Shelter in the back garden every night. Our Anderson shelter was made of corrugated iron sheets shaped so that when the two sides were assembled it was like an upside down U. Once all the sheets had been joined together and put into our large hole my Dad put wooden planks at each end, with a hole in one end that we could crawl through. All the earth that had been dug out was then piled all around and on top of our shelter to give us more protection. At the end where we would crawl into it my Dad built a wooden wall about ½ metre away with a roof to act as a protection from any bomb blast. All of this was also covered with earth. Inside our Anderson, Dad made floorboards and fitted bunk beds. He also had to dig a hole in one corner and fit a hand pump so that water could be pumped out each day more often, if it was raining! Later in the war, when I was a bit older, this was my job. Head Pumper! We used to read by candle, although my Dad did rig up a battery and a bulb that we used occasionally. We had a radio but this was a valve radio and needed a large high voltage battery (called an HT battery) and another battery like a car battery, to run the heaters in the valves. During the first few years of the war we had air raids practically every day and were sleeping in our shelter every night. During the winter it was very, very, very cold and our breath would condense on the steel and then drip on our faces very unpleasant. Raids would usually start at about six o clock in the evening and from our garden we could see, and hear, the enemy planes flying over and the whistle of the bombs dropping. The whole sky would be red and yellow from the fires caused by the bombs, and we would watch our fighter planes and the enemy planes firing at one another. Occasionally we would see a plane hit and, if he were lucky, the pilot bail out. By this time a massive searchlight had been installed with the Guns and Balloon in the recreation ground, and we would watch as a plane was caught in the beam of light and then shells and tracer bullets fired at it. My Grandfather had his house bombed and, together with my Aunt, had nowhere to live, so they both moved in with us. Our little Anderson shelter got very crowded! After just a few weeks my Grandfather said he couldn t stand it anymore and decided that bombs or no bombs, he was going to sleep in the house. I am very glad to say that he survived! A lot of bombs dropped in Lordship Rec knocking me out of my bunk many times, but one very large bomb managed to drop so much earth on our shelter that we had to dig ourselves out. That WAS quite frightening. I thought that we were buried alive! Life went on for 5-year-old Brian during the Blitz. Here he is at a wedding with his mum and dad PAGE 1
Investigation Can you discover the answers to the following questions based on Brian s story? 1 Name two important materials needed to make an Anderson shelter (AF2) 2 Why was earth piled on top? (AF2) 3 How did Brian s family get rid of water from the shelter? (AF2) 4 How often were the air raids? (AF2) 5 How would you have felt about sleeping in the shelter? Explain your reasons (AF6) 6 Why was the sky often red and yellow at night? (AF2) PAGE 2
What s that for? 7 Behind Brian s house on the far side of Lordship Rec was a Barrage balloon. The Balloon was huge (20 metres long and 8 metres in diameter) and, being filled with light gas, floated up to 1,500 metres. It was tethered by a steel cable attached to a winch. What do you think this balloon was for? (AF2) Rationing 8 Brian remembers During the war, the majority of food and clothing was rationed. Everybody had their own Ration Book with little perforated tickets inside. You had to tear these out and give them to the shopkeeper. Once that week s ration was used up you couldn t buy any more sweets or meat etc. What would you miss most if rationing came back? Explain your reasons (AF6/AF2) Where s the fruit? 9 Foreign fruit was almost impossible to get hold of during the war Brian was 11 before he had his first banana. Why do you think that was? (AF2) PAGE 3
10 Which of the following fruits do you think you would have been able to eat during the war? Why? (AF2) APPLES GRAPEFRUIT PEARS STRAWBERRIES ORANGES RASPBERRIES GRAPES LEMONS Imagination Could you describe how you would feel sleeping in an Anderson Shelter while bombs are dropping around you? Have a go at writing a diary entry imagining that you are about to spend another night in your shelter. Who is with you? How do you feel? What can you hear? Smell? See? (AF2/3) 11 Dear diary it s 6pm and just beginning to get dark. PAGE 4
FOR TEACHERS: RESOURCE FOR TOPIC WORK THE FULL STORY: Below is the unedited version of Brian s incredible first person account of living through the Blitz. It incorporates the following aspects that can provide talking points and discussions within class: l SIRENS l ANDERSON AND MORRISON SHELTERS l ALLOTMENTS l BARRAGE BALLOONS l SHELLS AND BOMBS (INCENDIARY, V1, V2) l SCHOOL LIFE DURING THE BLITZ l LEISURE TIME FOR CHILDREN DURING THE WAR l RATIONING l FIRE WARDENS I was born in 1934, which makes me very old. I ll let you work out how old. I lived in Tottenham, North London and in 1939 I was aged 5 and due to start school in September. Unfortunately, with very bad timing, this was the same month that war was declared between us and Germany. My school closed and I didn t actually go to school for several months. When war was declared on Sunday 3rd of September everybody thought that Germany would invade, or at least bomb us immediately, and so, when, a little while after war was declared the air raid sirens started to wail there was quite a lot of panic. Our next door neighbour (Mrs Kent) was banging on our door and when Mum let her in she was in hysterics, screaming and crying. After my Mum and Dad had calmed her they pulled the curtains and put mattresses against the windows (to stop any flying glass) and filled every bucket and bowl with water. We then sat on the floor wearing our gas masks. I found this very frightening and it is scene that I can remember very well. As it happened it was a false alarm and the all clear sounded soon after. To warn people that there was an air raid the sirens would start on a low note and then go higher and higher and then go lower and lower. It would then be repeated producing a wailing noise. The all clear was a steady note. If there was an invasion all the church bells would ring. This meant that during the war no church was allowed to ring its bells. No wedding bells, no funeral bells. During the following days after war was declared my Dad, with me helping, dug a huge hole in our small back garden about 3 metres long by 2 metres wide and 1 metre deep. The very large pile of earth dug out from this hole was great fun to play on and I got extremely muddy! This hole was where our air raid shelter was built. It was called an Anderson shelter and was made of corrugated iron sheets shaped so that when the two sides were assembled it was like an upside down U. Once all the steel sheets had been joined together and put into our large hole my Dad put wooden planks at each end, with a hole in one end that we could crawl through. All the earth that had been dug out was then piled all around and on top of our shelter. At the end where we would crawl into it my Dad built a wooden wall about ½ metre away with a roof to act as a protection from any bomb blast. All of this was also covered with earth. Inside our Anderson Dad made floor boards and fitted bunk beds. He also had to dig a hole in one corner and fit a hand pump so that water could be pumped out each day. More often, if it was raining! Later in the war, when I was a bit older, this was my job. Head Pumper! We used to read by candle, although my Dad did rig up a battery and a bulb that we used occasionally. We had a radio but this was a valve radio and needed a large high voltage battery ( called an HT battery) and another battery like a car battery, to run the heaters in the valves. Behind our house was Lordship recreation ground. This was very quickly given over to allotments so that people could grow their own food. Between the allotments very large trenches were dug to prevent an invasion by gliders or planes. My friend Maurice and I played soldiers in these trenches and dug our own headquarters and connecting tunnels, great fun! On the far side of Lordship Rec was a battery of anti-aircraft guns and a Barrage balloon. The Balloon was huge (20 metres long and 8 metres in diameter) and, being filled with light gas, floated up to 1,500 metres. It was tethered by a steel cable attached to a winch. It was meant to stop any enemy plane from dive bombing or flying very low. This, as I found out, was not very effective. PAGE 5
About a year after the war had started I was playing in the garden one Sunday morning when I suddenly heard a plane diving. Looking up I saw this German fighter plane diving towards me. As I started running towards the house he started machine gunning me. As I was running I could see spurts of earth jumping up as the bullets hit the ground in front of me. The plane roared over the top of me only about 20 metres high. It was so loud that I thought he was going to hit me and so I flung myself on the ground. When I looked up he had climbed and was turning his plane to come back. The plane was so close that I could see the pilot in the cockpit with his helmet and goggles. This is another memory that I will always remember! I scrambled to my feet and tried to run as fast as I could. It was like one of those cartoon films when everything seemed to happen in slow motion. He started firing at me again but by this time I had reached the house and dived into the kitchen. My Mum was having a bath at the time and, of course, had heard the sound of the diving plane and the machine gun fire and came rushing out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her. I was more excited than frightened and wanted to rush around to my friend s house and tell him I had been shot at, but Mum wouldn t let me go out I can t think why not! During the first few years of the war we had air raids practically every day and were sleeping in our shelter every night. During the winter it was very, very, very cold and our breath would condense on the steel and then drip on our faces, very unpleasant. Raids would usually start at about 6 in the evening and from our garden we could see, and hear, the enemy planes flying over and the whistle of the bombs dropping. The whole sky would be red and yellow from the fires caused by the bombs, and we would watch our fighter planes and the enemy planes firing at one another. Occasionally we would see a plane hit and, if he were lucky, the pilot bail out. By this time a massive searchlight had been installed with the Guns and Balloon in the recreation ground, and we would watch as a plane was caught in the beam of light and then shells and tracer bullets fired at it. The shells fired were, in some ways, more dangerous than the bombs, because when the shells exploded pieces of red hot metal from the shell casing fell back to ground. These were really prized items at school and we used to swop them. These pieces were called shrapnel and came in all sorts of shape and size. As soon as the all clear had sounded my friends and I would rush into Lordship Rec and pick up any pieces we could find some still very hot! The Germans dropped a lot of incendiary bombs. These were quite small bombs filled with Magnesium and were dropped just to set fire to anything. They were dropped in clusters of about 30 and this period was known as the London Blitz. Because Magnesium burns even in water the fires they started were difficult to put out and thousands and thousands of homes and factories were destroyed. As children we would collect burnt out incendiary bombs and, if we were very lucky, an unexploded one that hadn t gone off! At assembly each morning our headmaster would ask if anyone had any unexploded bombs with them, and we had to put them in buckets of sand in the playground. I don t know what happened to them but we thought it was very unfair! For the first couple of years of the war there were daylight raids as well as night raids and we had the majority of our lessons in the cellars under Belmont School. If the air raid siren sounded as we arrived at school all the children went into the cellars and all the Mums had to walk back home with the raid going on and bombs and shrapnel falling around them. Although the windows had sticky tape crosses on them to stop flying glass many were broken by the bomb explosions and were patched up with cardboard. It was sometimes quite dark in our classroom with cardboard in a lot of windows. My friends and I used to play football and roller-skate in the road because there were no cars. We also used to cycle down the middle of Lordship Lane. It was quite difficult because trams used to run down Lordship Lane and, if you got your tyre stuck in one of the tramlines you inevitably fell off. Apart from police, fire and ambulance, no private car could drive, because there was no petrol. The majority of food and clothing was also rationed. This had rather an unexpected result. Without sweets, very limited sugar, and fat, etc. people were generally much healthier and slimmer than they are now. Everybody had their own Ration Book with little perforated tickets inside. You had to tear these out and give them to the shopkeeper. Once that week s ration was used up you couldn t buy any more sweets, or meat etc Foreign fruit was almost impossible to get, no grapefruit, oranges, grapes, bananas, lemons, Kiwi, nuts the list goes on. I had by first banana when I was 11! My Grandfather (on my Father s side) had his house bombed and, together with my Aunt had nowhere to live, so they both moved in with us. Our little Anderson shelter got very crowded! After just a few weeks my Grandfather said he couldn t stand it anymore and decided that bombs or no bombs, he was going to sleep in the house. I am very PAGE 6
glad to say that he survived! A lot of bombs dropped in Lordship Rec knocking me out of my bunk many times, but one very large bomb managed to drop so much earth on our shelter that we had to dig ourselves out. That WAS quite frightening. I thought that we were buried alive! Dad was too old to be enlisted in the army and so was a fire warden. This meant that he was given a steel helmet (like sugar bowl with a rim) to protect him from falling shrapnel (!), and had to patrol a certain area looking for fires. Part of his patrol was to go on the roof of St Benets Church in Walpole Road to watch for fires. He took me up there when there wasn t a raid, but I wouldn t have liked to be him when there was a raid on, very dangerous! I was very proud to be enlisted as a runner for the fire wardens. This meant that I had to carry messages between the different groups on my bike. Much to my disgust they wouldn t let me do this when there actually was a raid on! I was only allowed to carry messages during their practises. I suppose it wouldn t have been sensible to allow an 8 year old out, riding his bike, during an air raid, but I did think it very unfair! My Grandfather and Grandmother (on my Mother s side) were also bombed, but they only had their windows blown out and the ceiling fall down so they were able to continue to live in their house. They only lived about ¾ mile from us and we saw and heard this huge explosion when the bomb dropped. We could see from the smoke that it must be near where they lived so Dad and I got on our bikes and cycled in their direction. As we got nearer there were people with cuts and blood on them from flying glass and in their road (Flexmere Road) their house was sitting there with no windows! They were very lucky and had been in their indoor air raid shelter (called a Morrison shelter) when the bomb had dropped. The Morrison shelter was like a large steel box with sheet steel ends and wire mesh all round like a very large dog kennel, but made of steel. They were cut, bruised and covered in plaster dust but I m sure that it saved their lives! Much later in the war the enemy had developed the Flying Bomb, known as the V1, and also nicknamed the Doodle Bug. This was a pilotless bomb with wings and driven by a small engine in the tail (we call this type of plane a Drone now) It did make a very distinctive droning sound, and, as long as the engine was running you knew you were safe. When the engine stopped it went into a steep dive and exploded when it hit the ground. Dad worked in Battersea and sometimes he would take me to his work on a Saturday morning. We would go by the underground (the Tube) from Wood Green or Turnpike Lane to South Kensington and then change. The Tube was used by thousands of people as an air raid shelter. Being deep underground it was very safe. It just meant that you had to sleep on the platform in a sleeping bag. When Dad and I used to go we would have to step over people still lying on the platform. How they could still sleep with the noise of the trains and people I don t know! One Saturday dad and I were walking along the road where he worked when we heard the distinctive drone of a Doodle Bug. It come up behind us, quite low, and droned its way past us. Just as we were relaxing it suddenly turned and came back towards us. Just at that moment the engine stopped. Dad and I dived into an alley way and Dad threw himself on top of me. Dad was heavy and I found I couldn t breathe. That was far more frightening than the Doodle Bug. There was a mighty bang and I m pleased to say, Dad got up. The Doodle Bug had crashed in the next street and blown up a small factory. As it was a Saturday no one was there and, as far as I know, no one was hurt. There was just a big hole in the ground. Towards the end of the war the Germans developed the V2. This was the first intercontinental rocket (packed with explosive) that was powerful enough to reach us from Europe. It reached a height of 50 miles! There was no warning with a V2, just suddenly a massive explosion. The noise really did make your chest hurt. They made a crater about 20 metres across and 8 metres deep and thousands of people were killed by them. I was 11 when the war ended so all my primary years had been spent during World War 2. We had quite old teachers because all the young teachers had been enlisted or had volunteered. We didn t go on trips or go to the sea side or anywhere come to that. There was no television, no computers, no mobile phones, very, very few cars on the road, no planes (other than military), no sweets, very few toys (Dad made all mine), no central heating (heating was a coal fire in one room), no running hot water ( a kettle on the gas stove), no plastic, no ball point pens, no calculators, - very few people had a telephone, it usually meant a walk down the road to a public call box to make a telephone call. All the beaches were mined and covered in barbed wire, and you only went on a train if it was an emergency! Surprising as it now seems, this was all quite normal to me and I had a very happy and enjoyable childhood. Sometimes quite exciting too!! PAGE 7