Manchester and the war proper
The day war broke out was the day before my twelfth birthday!
Evacuated to Lancaster with school for two years. Home at Christmas of the second year, to coincide with the Manchester blitz!
Evacuation was really war free and it was exciting hearing the news on the (was it crystal?) radio.
Then back to Manchester and the war proper. There were air raids frequently due to Trafford Park industrial site. There was ak-ak gunfire and whistling bombs, which were a bit scary.
My Dad had built an Anderson shelter (kit provided by the War Office). When an air raid was forecast, we all slept in the shelter.
A popular magazine was The Boys Own which told you what to build. I took up on one of the ideas. You stuck a sturdy stick in the ground and put a horizontal disc on top. With the aid of a map you drew arrows on the disc showing the direction of major cities and towns eg. Liverpool, Wigan etc. When the night raids occurred, the sky would light up with the explosions and with your device you could pinpoint the unfortunate recipient.
Walking home one day, an unexploded bomb detonated quite near. Within a minute, something fell quite near. It was a piece of the bomb! I went to pick it up -- ouch, it was red hot!
I went to evening class to learn how to recognize German bombers. A lot flew overhead but not near enough to recognise. The sky was filled with puffs of smoke from our gunfire. However, one type had a distinctive drone: the Heinkel 111.
Shared by Janet Reeve, his daughter
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