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Ww2 Outbreak Memories

cookie273uk

cookie273uk

master brummie
There has been Quite a lot said and discussed about WW1 hundredth anniversary and quite rightly so, but no mention that today is the 75th Anniversary of the start of WW2. Strange ! Eric
 
I've read a couple of items on it in the last 24 hours Eric - on in the paper and one online. Admittedly not a big show.
 
cookie273uk said:
There has been Quite a lot said and discussed about WW1 hundredth anniversary and quite rightly so, but no mention that today is the 75th Anniversary of the start of WW2. Strange ! Eric
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Like you Eric I lived through WW2 and but only thought about the anniversary when I happened to look at an old family photo. I notice the main TV rolling news channels did not devote much time to the anniversary, but they have probably been busy preparing to report on the 'NATO Eat and Drink Fest' in South Wales starting today.
 
More than strange, Eric, I would have said astonishing!

I don't remember the day itself - was too young for it to have registered - but I often wonder what I was doing when Chamberlain was speaking and, more important, what were my parents' emotions at that moment.

My father had already got his air-raid shelter built (its construction I DO recall) and so I suppose that September 3rd came as little surprise to him.

Chris
 
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Hi Chris - My first memory of WW2 was late one morning being told to stand in a covered passageway with my sister as my Dad and the neighbours were all looking at an aircraft which which was circling overhead as they discussed whether or not it was 'one of ours'. It was a Sunday morning because my Dad and the neighbours worked on Saturday mornings. It's strange the little things we remember from so long ago.
 
ChrisM, we had just moved from Sheldon to Shirley and we did not have an Anderson shelter but a Morrison shelter, a glorified steel table in place of your dining room table which you had to scramble under during an air raid, I think it was unloaded from a lorry in 'flat pack' form and my Dad had to assemble it I was 9 at the time. ERIC
 
I was expecting there to be mention of the anniversary as well but nothing at all to be seen. I did find a few things on the invasion of Poland two days earlier but not much on that either.
 
Another memory I have of the start of WW2 is going up to my school (Beeches Rd Infants) and seeing about a third of the school kids waiting to get on Corporation Buses to go for evacuation. I remember them queuing with labels tied to their coats and all of them carrying their gas masks and small suitcases, and tearful scenes from some kids and their moms. I can't remember the exact date and for some reason my mom and dad had decided that me and my sister would have to be brave and endure the bombing in Brum which I posted about on the forum here
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=35513&p=392925#post392925
 
We were never evacuated as my Dad thought Shirley a safe place to be, how wrong could he be in November 1940 a stray bomb destroyed a house in Clinton Rd parallel to our house in Cranmore Boulevard and the blast took all our windows out and some roof tiles, we spent the next few weeks living in a romany caravan in a farm in Earlswood whilst repairs were carried out, my sisters and I thought this a great adventure. No doubt my Mom and Dad thought different. Eric
 
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Not seen anything in our shops commemorating WW2 have you? On our recent France trip we noticed gifts with tasteful WW2 scenes with USA Canadian and UK troops pictured and our flags and on supermarket shopping bags.
 
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