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The Blitz

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
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David I remember the first ditty, we used to sing it to tease our friends but used their name not Hitlers, and the last line as we sang it was "with legs like drumsticks".
 
have just been looking through this thread and for some reason had missed it :( but like most people on the forum here I find it interesting reading and informative its nice that people add things now and again to bring a good posts back to the top .. I will look at some of the links on here later thanks to contributors for sharing with us all :)
 
David Weaver. I also remember the singing the first ditti - but using friends names and the drumsticks at the end.
Al also sings a ditton about Hitler but haven't the nerve to put it on here.:D:redface: Miriam.
 
Another story. My wife got the family tree bug, and discovered a number of Half uncles i.e half brothers to her dad who were born illegitemately before she married. My wife found some of her family living in Sparkbrook Rd, and as they all died at the same time it was obvious they had died in the Blitz. Quite by chance she read a blog by a lady in N Wales who was a childhood friend of one of the family and when she went to school she was told bluntly that her best friend had been killed and she could clear out her desk. She kept her friends bible on the offchance that she might be able to give it to a relative.My wife contacted her and she was so pleased to give the bible to her. However my wife then found a closer relative to the deceased and handed the bible to her, She is coming up for the blitz remembrance service and to see the name on the Bull Ring Memorial, The name is Claytor.
 
What an interesting thread about such a frightening time in our history. I remember the bomb sites (pecks) as well the damage in the city when mom took us into town shopping. I have strong memories of the Anderson in the garden. I also remember dads chickens and how the fresh eggs tasted better than the dried egg powder. Thanks to Everyone who has helped to give us all this information and bring back memories of old. I have been searching my books and pictures and I may have one that has not been posted. I will put it on tomorrow.
 
This picture is dated 1939 and the Anderson shelters are being delivered in a north London suberb.
 
Although Hitler never carried out a gas attack on Britain, gas mask drill became a regular thing in factories, schools and offices.
 
We used to sit in class having the dreaded gas mask practise and hated it. One of my mates couldn't stand being enclosed so removed the cellophane eye piece and was quite OK until the teacher stuck her finger through into his eye. Wow, did she whallop him but he did the same with the next one and so on until they gave up with frustration. We'd all sit there feeling safe and uncomfortable and he'd be comfortable waiting to die. I reckon he was smarter than us. Hope you're still alive Latimor, I'll bet you are. Regards, David.
 
I had a gas mask like this, I started school in early '43 so I didn't need to wear it. I would put it on for 'practice' at home, I soon took it off. I didn't like the smell or the way the windows misted up.:rolleyes:

View attachment 34167
 
I'm not sure if this is the right placebut no doubt someone will put me right.
‘Two white ribbon’
David Weaver ©

He held her hand in the coal yard,
asked her to be his wife.
She started laughing at his dirty face,
and replied, ‘Not on your life’.

Looking so pretty with her long blonde hair,
white ribbon pinned it in its place.
The bluest eyes you’ve ever seen,
set in the loveliest face.

But he knew she would change her mind,
with confidence so sure.
Doreen would fall for his roguish smile,
despite smelling horse manure.

When the planes came in on their journey of death,
carrying their Fuerer’s gift.
He scrambled for cover in a mad stampede,
never having moved so swift.

He searched for her when it was over,
but she and her family were gone.
Found a white ribbon in the rubble,
was all that was left from the bomb.

Now there’s a valley in Australia,
he’s watching a white ribbon bearing down.
It soars in the sky all rippling,
then plunges again to the ground.

A thousand white parrots are homing,
back to their nests for the night
Twisting and turning as if guided by hand,
held by a string on a kite.

One white ribbon was wiped from the earth,
the other a million years old.
A ten year old boy saw the first one,
and the second one too, now he’s old.
Dedicated to my friend little Doreen Freer, killed in the Aston Air Raids.

 
Hello Di.Poppitt. My younger brother had a gas mask like the one shown - we called it his Mickey Mouse Mask. My younger, younger brother has a sort of black box thing with a window, which my parents had to slip him into being a baby. Mine was the ordinary one which at times came in useful - when late for school, I used to say I had forgotten my Gas mask and had return to get it. :redface: Some times when we had to sit with it on in class we had to put a mans sock over the nose piece to make it more safe - actually I don't think they were any good anyway. Miriam.
 
Hi all - I remember sitting on the edge of the bed while my mom slipped me into a blue siren suit. She then used to chuck me into the pram and with my sister (I was about 4 and Barbara was 8) and she used to run from Chesterton Road to Oldfield Road - about a 20 minute walk. She used to take us to my grans place because they had a Anderson shelter. Mind you she used to go past at least 3 concrete shelters to get there but she did not trust them - but they did smell shocking. Jan
 
Just a little aside on gas masks.My brother had a micky mouse one,I had a big boy one.
Later when I was a butchers boy,I used to filter red commercial petrol through a gas mask to make it clear...for the butcher to use in his car.
The ingenuity of the Brummies.:rolleyes:.
 
Hello Ray, you have just bought back a guilty feeling. I will only say that I wish I had never boasted about always being honest. Incidently, in our house was Mom, Dad myself and two brothers. All our gasmasks were kept for years after the war. My youngest brothers one was the big one that he was put into like a covered cradle sort of thing.
 
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A lot of children were evacuated into the countryside. In some cases their schoolteachers went with them, classes were held outdoors when and where practicable. Of course, the countryside was a new experience to most of the city children, so much so that one evacuee is reported to have written a letter home saying 'this is spring mom, and they have one every year here.
 
We used to rub a slightly damp piece of soap over the eye shield of our gas masks to stop the misting.Len.
 
Hello Stitcher,
My evacuation never happened,I didn't go.However, my dad kept all my papers including the label and safty pin to put on my overcoat,still have them,they were posted somewhere on the forum.
My cousins who lived up the same yard as me went to Wales,:walesflag:but I stayed in Aston and got bombed,so the joke was...I was the lucky one.:rolleyes:
 
I remember wearing my gasmask at school, we all had to put them on and sing. I thought that would be the last time I wore one, but at RAF Padgate in '56 we had a day of 'gas training' ! We went into a sealed room with the masks, they pumped in a load of 'tear gas' and we had to march round singing the 'Happy Wanderer'. Then we had to take the masks off to give the NCO's some amusement.:)
 
Old Mowhawk and Ray, it was dreadful at the time but they are fond memories now. I was born in Acocks Green and although we used the Anderson frequently, and we heard all the noises of Bombs and sirens.
 
Stitcher,
As we were just little boys I suppose it must have been an adventure to us,hiding out in air-raid shelters.
However,it would have been horrific for the moms,with young children...and their husbands away.
 
Hi Stitcher,
I like your pic of them delivering Anderson shelters. The man on the pavement must have been strong because he seems to be easily holding the section - they seemed heavy to me when everyone was building sheds with them after the war. Our shelter was delivered late and my sister and me were sleeping under a concrete slab in the pantry when a bomb dropped on our house.
 
Yes Ray I suppose thats about right. My Mom and Dad had both been married before and both had families. My two step-brothers were away and I had a step-sister in the Land Army. Dad worked at The B.S.A. He didnt seem too phased by it because he had fought in WW1. Moms son Ben was in the R.E.M.E and was encamped somewhere near Monte Cassino. Dads son Ernie was in the R.Artillery and one day Ernies mob walked past where Bens mob were camped. They were allowed to have a few minutes for a chat and a fag before they went their separate ways. Luckily they both came home after the war.
 
Old Mowhawk, were they ok after the Bomb? As I posted earlier, we could hear it all but the nearest bomb to us was about four hundred yards away in the next road.
 
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Stitcher said:
were they ok after the Bomb?
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Well I'm still here Stitch. Luckily it was only a little early type incendary bomb. My Dad got it out of the front bedroom window with a shovel before it got going. I think I've mentioned it before, probably in this long running thread. I'm reading a book at the moment about the Wartime Diary of Olivia Cockett. She casually mentions about dealing with incendary bombs as if it was a normal daily event.
 
Of course, thousands of bombs of various types were dropped and thankfully/luckily many of them did no serious damage. In a three week period in September 1940 about 10,000 high explosive bombs were dropped on London. Here is a picture of St Paul's Cathedral after a direct hit on Oct. 10th. The bomb made a hole in the roof and destroyed the high alter.
 
We lived in Witton, not too far from Kynochs so my parents lived in fear that a bomb meant for the munitions would catch us. I think there were bombs dropped on Kynochs, but there wasn't too much damage done there. I had an aunt who worked making bullets from 1914 until she retired in 1965, so she went through the war there working both day and night shifts, and she came through without seeing any damage in what they called Tracer Bullet.

Yes Miriam I called my gas mask Mikey Mouse, weren't we lucky that Hitler didn't have the means to drop gas of any sort.

My husband lived closer to Kynochs than we did, and they had an incendiary dropped on the house, it took the corner of the bathroom off.
 
Yes. Di. Popitt. We were lucky. It was an adventure to us children, but what a fearful time for our parents.. Miriam.
 
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