-
Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.
We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team -
HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
we are now using a backup solution
THE WAR FROM A CHILDS EYES
- Thread starter Alf
- Start date
Ray Barrett
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN R.I.P.
Re: saving what they could.
Lyn,
Alf might agree with me on this,I think to us little boy's it wasn't too bad,more like an adventure,hiding out in cellars and lookng at the damage next day,and a bonus if you found a piece of shrapnel.Still have my bit of shrapnel,I thought for years it could have been a bit of an old gas stove,but no, I had it analysed,it was Krupps steel.However,an adventure for little boy's,would have been horrific for mom's,so many of them with husbands,abroad,and not knowing where,I really don't know how they did it.
Lyn,
Alf might agree with me on this,I think to us little boy's it wasn't too bad,more like an adventure,hiding out in cellars and lookng at the damage next day,and a bonus if you found a piece of shrapnel.Still have my bit of shrapnel,I thought for years it could have been a bit of an old gas stove,but no, I had it analysed,it was Krupps steel.However,an adventure for little boy's,would have been horrific for mom's,so many of them with husbands,abroad,and not knowing where,I really don't know how they did it.
Re: saving what they could.
morning ray...yes i agree there and being a bit of a tom boy i myself would probably have looked upon it as an adventure...crikey im still climbing into old derilict buildings now
but yes for the moms who were mainly the ones left at home to hold it together it must have been such a bad time...i have said it before and i will again...i have only the most utmost respect for the folk who endured both world wars...
alfie..im so glad yer canary survived...
morning ray...yes i agree there and being a bit of a tom boy i myself would probably have looked upon it as an adventure...crikey im still climbing into old derilict buildings now
but yes for the moms who were mainly the ones left at home to hold it together it must have been such a bad time...i have said it before and i will again...i have only the most utmost respect for the folk who endured both world wars...alfie..im so glad yer canary survived...
Ray Barrett
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN R.I.P.
Re: saving what they could.
As an aside Alf,I read somewhere children who were bombed,always pull the bed clothes high up over their head in later life,I thought, nah, that's psycho babble.
However,I do,thought it was because I don't like to get my neck cold.
How about you?.
As an aside Alf,I read somewhere children who were bombed,always pull the bed clothes high up over their head in later life,I thought, nah, that's psycho babble.
However,I do,thought it was because I don't like to get my neck cold.
How about you?.
G G Jean
Brummy Wench.
Len my brother told me when he was five years old after an air raid he would go outside and collect the shrapnel and one morning he saw some red fins sticking out of the rhubarb and they turned out to be unexploded incendiary bombs dropped the previous night. He said the house No 65 was hit by a bomb and destroyed. Jean.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Re: saving what they could.
I remember the dash in the mornings to get the best bits of shrapnel. Once picked a large piece up slightly warm. I think it was from the AA guns in Perry Barr park. Going up to the shelter after tea in the evenings, I use to look back at the house and wonder if it would be there in the morning. I also used to wonder whether the milk bottles put out for the milkman would be broken - daft innit what you think of as a young child.
I remember the dash in the mornings to get the best bits of shrapnel. Once picked a large piece up slightly warm. I think it was from the AA guns in Perry Barr park. Going up to the shelter after tea in the evenings, I use to look back at the house and wonder if it would be there in the morning. I also used to wonder whether the milk bottles put out for the milkman would be broken - daft innit what you think of as a young child.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Re: saving what they could.
oldmohawk
I was 4 when the war started and my first memory was of a day or two after it started and there was a strange looking plane with throbbing engines circling high up. My Dad was telling me and my sister to stay inside the back door as he and the neighbours debated whether it was one of 'theirs' or one of 'ours'. The only lasting 'effect' I have from the war is when I hear the air-raid sirens in a war film, it's hard to describe. I notice on the Astonbrook-through-Astonmanor site there is a picture of an air-raid siren which makes the sound when you click on it, but it's the 'all-clear-raiders-passed ' sound, which we all liked to hear.
oldmohawk
Re: saving what they could.
old mohawk..i think the air raid siren was a very haunting sound and no wonder it sticks in your mind...i also have heard it on the astonbrook site..if i remember correctly the lucas factory at great king street had an air raid siren sound that they used to alert the workers when the day was finished..actually i think it blew at dinner times too...could hear it for miles....well it seemed like you could...
lyn
old mohawk..i think the air raid siren was a very haunting sound and no wonder it sticks in your mind...i also have heard it on the astonbrook site..if i remember correctly the lucas factory at great king street had an air raid siren sound that they used to alert the workers when the day was finished..actually i think it blew at dinner times too...could hear it for miles....well it seemed like you could...
lyn
Re: saving what they could.
My sister had cut her top lip and had had a couple of stitches put in.Some time later we were in the Anderson shelter durring a raid one night and a bomb landed a couple of hundred yards away.The affects of the explosion seemed to draw some of the air from the shelter and it's sides seemd to implode a bit.In the morning the stitches in my sisters lip had disapeared.My mother always reckoned the suction caused by the bomb had sucked them out. Obviously my sister must have rubbed them out with her hand but our mothers version of the disapearing stitches was more interesting so we never contradicted her
My sister had cut her top lip and had had a couple of stitches put in.Some time later we were in the Anderson shelter durring a raid one night and a bomb landed a couple of hundred yards away.The affects of the explosion seemed to draw some of the air from the shelter and it's sides seemd to implode a bit.In the morning the stitches in my sisters lip had disapeared.My mother always reckoned the suction caused by the bomb had sucked them out. Obviously my sister must have rubbed them out with her hand but our mothers version of the disapearing stitches was more interesting so we never contradicted her
Lloyd
master brummie
Re: saving what they could.
I can remember the sirens being tested 2 or 3 times a year in the 50s and 60s - have they all been taken away now?
You couldn't do much in four minutes if the A-bomb came, we used to joke. Just bend over and kiss your a** goodbye!
The house next door to us when I was young had been a refuge for bombed out families in the war (they were large 12 room houses on Hagley Road), and there was a massive brick and concrete air raid shelter in the garden. It was a hotel by then, but the owner's son had a huge model railway in one of the four rooms inside it.
I can remember the sirens being tested 2 or 3 times a year in the 50s and 60s - have they all been taken away now?
You couldn't do much in four minutes if the A-bomb came, we used to joke. Just bend over and kiss your a** goodbye!
The house next door to us when I was young had been a refuge for bombed out families in the war (they were large 12 room houses on Hagley Road), and there was a massive brick and concrete air raid shelter in the garden. It was a hotel by then, but the owner's son had a huge model railway in one of the four rooms inside it.
jennyann
Gone but not forgotten. R.I.P.
Re: saving what they could.
I was only a babe in arms in 1941 and my Father was on duty a great deal at Bournville Power Station keeping the electric supply going so that the bigger factories could keep their war production up. My Mother spent hours with my brother and I under the stairs in the pantry. Dad rigged up the radio and she used to get very frightened when Lord HawHaw used to come on and tell Birmingham where the bombers would be coming on any particular evening. She hated the air raid shelter and we all went in their very rarely over the years. Like just about everyone's the bloomin thing was flooded with water.
There was quite a lot of incendery bombing around Marsh Hill and one or two direct hits over the period of the war.Nothing like the areas close to the city. The people were so brave and just kept on going.
A friend of mine lived in Enstone Road, at the end of Gravelley lane, Erdington, the first street to be bombedin the Birmingham area. His father told him that two houses were hit and all the windows were blown out of the houses in the small street.
I like the film 'Hope & Glory" with Ian Bannen and Sarah Miles. It very much depicts the WW2 and what went on with many scenes of the small boys going out looking for shrapnel after a raid and playing in the bombed houses.
I was only a babe in arms in 1941 and my Father was on duty a great deal at Bournville Power Station keeping the electric supply going so that the bigger factories could keep their war production up. My Mother spent hours with my brother and I under the stairs in the pantry. Dad rigged up the radio and she used to get very frightened when Lord HawHaw used to come on and tell Birmingham where the bombers would be coming on any particular evening. She hated the air raid shelter and we all went in their very rarely over the years. Like just about everyone's the bloomin thing was flooded with water.
There was quite a lot of incendery bombing around Marsh Hill and one or two direct hits over the period of the war.Nothing like the areas close to the city. The people were so brave and just kept on going.
A friend of mine lived in Enstone Road, at the end of Gravelley lane, Erdington, the first street to be bombedin the Birmingham area. His father told him that two houses were hit and all the windows were blown out of the houses in the small street.
I like the film 'Hope & Glory" with Ian Bannen and Sarah Miles. It very much depicts the WW2 and what went on with many scenes of the small boys going out looking for shrapnel after a raid and playing in the bombed houses.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Re: saving what they could.
Thinking back all those years ago - on some days in '41, home from school, eat tea, sirens start sounding, put Siren Suit on (remember them) up to 'next door's' shelter, candles, damp musty smell, planes circling, bangs flashes, sometimes all night. Walking down the garden path in the morning in siren suit, have breakfast, clothes on, off to school. I suppose we were lucky in a way that Hitler decided to have a go at Russia and took some pressure off us.
Thinking back all those years ago - on some days in '41, home from school, eat tea, sirens start sounding, put Siren Suit on (remember them) up to 'next door's' shelter, candles, damp musty smell, planes circling, bangs flashes, sometimes all night. Walking down the garden path in the morning in siren suit, have breakfast, clothes on, off to school. I suppose we were lucky in a way that Hitler decided to have a go at Russia and took some pressure off us.
Alf
Gone but not forgotten. R.I.P.
Re: saving what they could.
Guilty Ray do it everynight, I always thought I did after the night Mom woke us when a bomb dropped near and blew all the windows in at the front of the house and the bed was covered in Glass.
It was Moms bedroom as she always had us sleeping with her at the time, the windows in the back where we usually slept were undamaged
As an aside Alf,I read somewhere children who were bombed,always pull the bed clothes high up over their head in later life,I thought, nah, that's psycho babble.
However,I do,thought it was because I don't like to get my neck cold.
How about you?.
Guilty Ray do it everynight, I always thought I did after the night Mom woke us when a bomb dropped near and blew all the windows in at the front of the house and the bed was covered in Glass.
It was Moms bedroom as she always had us sleeping with her at the time, the windows in the back where we usually slept were undamaged
Re: saving what they could.
morning all...these accounts of the war are most interesting.i am finding them fascinating...i wonder as so many of you are posting your memories and thoughts if admin could please start another thread from post number 2 titled THE WAR THROUGH A CHILDS EYES...then we could have a thread dedicated to it....
cheers
lyn...
morning all...these accounts of the war are most interesting.i am finding them fascinating...i wonder as so many of you are posting your memories and thoughts if admin could please start another thread from post number 2 titled THE WAR THROUGH A CHILDS EYES...then we could have a thread dedicated to it....
cheers
lyn...
lencops
gone but not forgotten
Re: saving what they could.
War declared third of Sept nice & sunny day and i stood at door of My Moms "Hucksters" shop ( converted front room of a terraced house) 11yrs young, my Sisters Husband an Army Reserve came to say he was returning to his Regiment, the first air raid i was picked up out of bed by my eldest Brother & carried not knowing what what was happening to our shelter in the garden (i had 3 Sisters non living at home & 3 Brothers all living at home) there were 7 in the shelter including Mom and Dad plus 1 neighbour, the all clear sounded after approx 1/2 hour, no bombs dropped, more in another post. Len.
War declared third of Sept nice & sunny day and i stood at door of My Moms "Hucksters" shop ( converted front room of a terraced house) 11yrs young, my Sisters Husband an Army Reserve came to say he was returning to his Regiment, the first air raid i was picked up out of bed by my eldest Brother & carried not knowing what what was happening to our shelter in the garden (i had 3 Sisters non living at home & 3 Brothers all living at home) there were 7 in the shelter including Mom and Dad plus 1 neighbour, the all clear sounded after approx 1/2 hour, no bombs dropped, more in another post. Len.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Re: saving what they could.
we have scattered them over several threads in the section. I know I put a short account in the 'Bombing Brum' thread of being in a house when a bomb landed on us, and I think I might have also posted it in another thread ..... never mind
I think we have put some of our stories on here, but untidy lot that we are
we have scattered them over several threads in the section. I know I put a short account in the 'Bombing Brum' thread of being in a house when a bomb landed on us, and I think I might have also posted it in another thread ..... never mind
Di.Poppitt
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
I was three when the bombing was at its worst in Birmingham. My memories are of being woken up by my mother and carried down to the shelter, Dad was usually on fire watch, he would go on watch after work and nipping home for dinner. I always slept in mom's bedroom, at first in my cot and later in mom's bed, and I have told this story before, she was very frightened and was sure that the Germans would land and come marching up Woodall Road in Witton. The bedroom was like a fortress, she would pull the tallboy in front of the door, then the linen basket in front of that and a bedroom chair was balanced on top of it all. When the sirens went, as they often did, when we were in bed she would claw her way through the mountain of furniture, no time to put it back in place, and get us out of the house. My siren suit was put on in the shelter, no time when the siren went to put it on in the house.
Knowing as I grew older and mom would talk about those war years, just how afraid she had been, she didn't show her fear. Everything was a game and I have no bad memories of the war, I had no idea of the bomb damage in Birmingham until I read of it very much later. My parents shielded me from much of what happened, and I slept completely unconcerned, dressed in my siren suit in my moms arms.
I can recall very clearly one of our neighbours, an elderly lady, sitting with her head on one side listening, and she would say 'there's one coming' my memory stops there but mom said that although no one else had heard anything, within a couple of minutes sure enough aircraft would pass overhead, probably German on the way to drop a load on Kynochs.
Knowing as I grew older and mom would talk about those war years, just how afraid she had been, she didn't show her fear. Everything was a game and I have no bad memories of the war, I had no idea of the bomb damage in Birmingham until I read of it very much later. My parents shielded me from much of what happened, and I slept completely unconcerned, dressed in my siren suit in my moms arms.
I can recall very clearly one of our neighbours, an elderly lady, sitting with her head on one side listening, and she would say 'there's one coming' my memory stops there but mom said that although no one else had heard anything, within a couple of minutes sure enough aircraft would pass overhead, probably German on the way to drop a load on Kynochs.
hi di..your memories of the war years just prove to me what i have always thought...the sheer grit and determination that folk had..you were so lucky that your parents like others i would think tried to shield their children from the horrors of the war years and this enabled you to come out of it without any real bad memories and so didnt not affect you in later years...reading others accounts its obvious that the grown ups were not so lucky...thanks for telling us...
lyn
lyn
brummie nick
master brummie
I was six years old when the war started, and can remember the air raids quite clearly,
The family opposite our house had two killed, Grandmother and Granddaughter on the night of 17 October 1940 , then on the 19 November 1940, my school friend Gordon Tranter was killed,
They are commemorated on the BARRA site.
https://www.swanshurst.org/barra/results.asp
https://www.swanshurst.org/barra/record.asp?recordid=1590
Nick
The family opposite our house had two killed, Grandmother and Granddaughter on the night of 17 October 1940 , then on the 19 November 1940, my school friend Gordon Tranter was killed,
They are commemorated on the BARRA site.
https://www.swanshurst.org/barra/results.asp
https://www.swanshurst.org/barra/record.asp?recordid=1590
Nick
brummie nick
master brummie
Not sure why the first link don't work, try this one.
Last edited:
Ray Barrett
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN R.I.P.
My lump of shrapnel.The hole in it was done when it was anylised,it is Krupps steel,picked up in Aston.
thanks for that brummie nick....my own mom who was 9 at the time the war started has vivid memories of the family who owned the chip shop on the corner of paddington and guildford st were wiped out...apparently the father was found still sitting in his chair basically untouched but not alive...
ray..thanks for the pic of yer shrapnal...brillient...
alfie...trust you to do a swap...
lyn
ray..thanks for the pic of yer shrapnal...brillient...
alfie...trust you to do a swap...
lyn
Ray Barrett
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN R.I.P.
Alf may have swapped his shrapnel...for a girls favours.
