A member of my family gave me the account of this night. They lived at no 10 Court Rd Balsall Heath these houses which were bombed have now been replaced. The houses which still exist on the other side of the road is how the houses were.On this night they were sheltering in an Anderson shelter second next door at number 12 0r 14 owned by a Mr and Mrs Leonard and their daughter Sylvia, with whom they used to play.My family consisted of a father mother son and daughter. The daughter said she was cold and the father went back to the house to get her a blanket and while he was there the house was bombed and he was killed, unbeknown to his wife in the shelter. Soon air raid wardens appeared to take them across the debris of Court Rd into Calthorpe Park where across the spread of black tarmac clearly illuminated was the public air raid shelter. As they reached the gates of the park there was a sound of machine guns and the warden shouted to them to run to the shelter, as they ran the plane swooped over to their right, some hundred yards away. They thankfully reached the safety of the shelter and were given bunks to sleep . Their memory was of how kind people were to them and of their mother continually asking the wardens if they had seen her husband.Other families they remember are the Dann family and Jean Dann with whom they used to play also the Wright family who kept the Green Grocers on the corner of Court Rd and they had a daughter called Elsie. They have never spoken about this before and I wondered if anyone else had memories if tha night in that area?
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Nov 19th 1940
- Thread starter mo1234
- Start date
Louisa
master brummie
A very interesting and yet sad account of that night from right at the beginning of the war.
I could not imagine what it must have been like to live through those times especially with the night raids but I suppose everyone did cope somehow. It is the recording of memories such as this first hand from the people like your relative who went through the exprience which will help future generations to learn and understand about our history and the sacrifices that were made in the war years.
This is a link to an excellent website about the Home Guard which you and your relative may find interesting, I am not sure if there is a section for your family member to add their own memories of the war years to it but you could e-mail them to ask.
The web page may say Staffordshire homeguard but it does include Birmingham and other parts of Warwickshire.
https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscencesWarkssstaffshg.htm
Louisa
I could not imagine what it must have been like to live through those times especially with the night raids but I suppose everyone did cope somehow. It is the recording of memories such as this first hand from the people like your relative who went through the exprience which will help future generations to learn and understand about our history and the sacrifices that were made in the war years.
This is a link to an excellent website about the Home Guard which you and your relative may find interesting, I am not sure if there is a section for your family member to add their own memories of the war years to it but you could e-mail them to ask.
The web page may say Staffordshire homeguard but it does include Birmingham and other parts of Warwickshire.
https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscencesWarkssstaffshg.htm
Louisa
Thank you Louisa, for your kind thoughts. I find all this history fascinating, and you are so right if its not recorded no one will know the details of the events, which bring it all to life again. thank you also for the Home guard link which is very interesting. I will indeed try to find out more. I only came across the forum yesterday!
