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MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR IIPrologue This section would never have been written had it not been for a question posed to me at the end of our Church Service on Armistice Day 2003…Namely: - “What was it really like? Our generation needs to know. My children’s generation needs to know”. The answer depends on where you were; what you were and how old you were. The perspective of a child is different to that of an adult. |
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‘We who are left to grow old’ would have experienced those perspectives as they unfolded. My ‘personal’ war started when I was a boy and over a period of eight years ended when I was a man. Both the first and second World Wars were fought against despots of Germany, seeking to gain territory to extend their Empires and eventually have world domination. Both wars were referred to as ‘The war to end all wars’…they didn’t. In any case, historically, any country that has the resources to explore and fight had an empire. Empires are fading away but wars are not! As we broke up for the August summer holidays in 1939, the headmaster of my school-Handsworth (Birmingham) Junior Tech., said at morning assembly “Any boy who is old enough to start work, don’t come back as we will be at war with Germany”. I never went back to start my third year at the age of 14. During that August, my twin brother Maurice and I were staying with my maternal Grandmother in Hornchurch, Essex; Grandfather had died in 1942. We had no paternal Grandparents. Our sister Frances was 6 years old and remained with mother in our family home in Sutton Coldfield. From the age of about 6 years, I was becoming aware of worldly matters…1931 voting stickers on the trams passing our front door in Handsworth- George V Jubilee-Mrs Simpson and that machines could make things! The 3rd September 1939…we sat around the wireless set. The Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain said “…we are at war with Germany”. I remember feeling blank and my mind went back to ‘Wilf’, every boy’s favourite at junior school. He had a twitch as a result of being gassed in the First World War. At about 11 a.m., the Air Raid warning sounded. We joined the neighbours in their shelter; nothing happened and in about half an hour the All Clear sounded. My mother came down the next day and took us back home to Sutton. From this point on, every man, woman and child; the born and the unborn in this country will, for the next 6 years where ever they might be, face death and deprivation, not knowing if tomorrow will be! ‘…and when you go home, tell them of us that we gave our tomorrows for your today’. Not wishing to be influenced by subsequently published historical records, the narrative that follows is how I remember events and how I felt at the time. 6th September 1939 Where do we start? I heard a neighbour say to my mother ‘Dodd’s the Ironmonger is looking for a boy’. I went straight down to the shop, an ironmonger in the High Street. ‘Can you ride a bike?’ asked Dodd ‘Yes’ I said… I couldn’t…never had a bike nor sat on one. I got the job and then went next door to F H & W shoe shop and got another for my brother. We were over the first hurdle and now errand boy’s at 5/- (25p) per week…9 ‘till 6 and Saturday mornings. That winter was a hard one; heavy snow and slush turning to ice grooves 6” deep; no good for a bike. We had to walk, delivering everything from a dustbin to ½ gallon of paraffin: to huddle around Valour oil stoves as we did in the shop. Life went on; we did a good trade in selling new, and regrinding ice skates…the lakes in Sutton Park were frozen over. Victor H Mould |