麻豆社

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Frances Read of the 鈥楢ction Desk 鈥� Sheffield鈥� Team on behalf of Lilian Slater, and has been added to the site with the author鈥檚 permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Air raid sirens would go, and we鈥檇 put on siren suits. Mine was green, and it was lovely and warm with a hood. Our next door neighbours鈥� shelters were flooded out, so we had to let them in ours. We would then hear the planes coming over dropping bombs. It was absolutely terrible, you used to think it was your house that they鈥檇 hit 鈥� they hadn鈥檛, but it wasn鈥檛 very far away. They supplied us with gas masks but they never got used. The sirens were very loud and would go off again when it was all clear. They also had barrage balloons to try to catch Germans!

One Sunday night we were in the house and never heard the sirens - we wore ear plugs to drown out the noise - so one of the wardens came to get us out.

We got ration books and clothing coupons 鈥� 2 ounces of tea a week; everything was cut down to a limit. We鈥檇 be lucky if we鈥檇 get a bag of sweets a fortnight.

If you put lights on, wardens would shout, 鈥淕et that light out!鈥� And we鈥檇 have black screens, so you couldn鈥檛 see anything from the outside.

People would come to see if we鈥檇 billet soldiers in our houses 鈥� some people did 鈥� they were good lads and would ask if we鈥檇 like a drink.

Pr-BR

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