I told my story to a friend on Bordesley Green Technical School and he said I should tell in on The Blitz.
I was born in 1939, just before the war, in Deritend (dirty end) Bham. My father was Irish and could only get work on a daily basis. When the war started he got regular work and moved to Blake Lane, Small Heath but my parents thought the Landlady would not like babies, so I was shipped off to my maternal grandparents in Belfast. The Landlady did not mind babies so my mother fetched me back just in time for me to be bombed out. Durring an air raid, the authoroties placed an anti-aircraft gun at the corner of Blake Lane and Green Lane to shoot down enemy aircraft. The Germans tried to knock it out, but they missed it and hit the Co-op Greengrocery shop instead. It blew up, but the adjacent houses also went down, like a pack of cards. I was under the stairs with my mother when the house came down around us. The Air Raid Patrols and Air Raid Wardens gave us up for dead thinking that we could not survive the collapse.
My father was on the night shift at the BSA and when he came home he jumped off the No.28 bus in Hob Moor Lane and ran over to us. He knew where we were so dug us out. My mother's first words were "I need a cup of tea!" I slept through the lot. Oh to be young!
My father walked down Fifth Avenue looking for an empty house, at No. 70 he met people who wanted to bolt, so did a deal for the furniture and moved us in, where we lived until 1953.
We first had a Henderson shelter (a cage under the table) then an Anderson shelter which we shared with neighbours.
My father was also in the Home Guard, stationed with an Anti-aircraft gun on top of the BSA tower. He was not on duty the night it got hit and collapsed on top of the workers. They could not retreive the workers so waited until they heard no sounds and them poured in quicklime. Poor souls.