'As Seen By The Child

‘As Seen By The Child’
By Derek Williams Southampton

I was only a child when war was declared and still a child when peace was once again restored. I have very vivid memories of my childhood, the following is how I saw it from a child’s view. Our house like most others had no heating except for a coal fire in the sitting room, therefore when you went to bed the bedroom was freezing. I mention this because as I remember it, I had just got cosy and warm in bed with my hot water bottle, when the air-raid siren would sound. Then one of the adults in the house , would come and wrap us in one of the blankets and carry us down the stairs and out of the back door, and into the Anderson shelter in the garden. The Anderson shelter was a corrugated iron structure, that my father and grandfather erected (although I was too young to remember them doing it.)They had dug a deep hole, bolted the corrugated sheets together, to form an arch type structure, then fitted it into the hole they had dug . The hole was backfilled with the soil and turves piled on top, this small metal cave became our family protection from the German bombs. As I was carried out of the back door I would feel the cold air on my face, or sometimes the rain, the shelter always smelt damp and musty, also of paraffin from the portable heater we had down there. When the raid was over a siren would sound the ‘All Clear’, and we would be returned to our beds in the house, sometimes the siren would sound again and we would repeat the whole procedure all over again.
Southampton was subjected to many raids as the Germans were determined to put the docks and Supermarine factory out of action (Supermarine was the factory where the famous Spitfire plane was built) of course I was too young to understand this at the time. I do remember the night the ‘Doodlebug’ landed near Butts Road, I had an Aunty and a cousin who lived there, my Uncle was away fighting in the war so my Aunt like many other wives was at home with her baby my cousin. My father who was a merchant seaman was at home at the time of the ‘Doodlebug ‘landing, even though the ’All clear’ hadn’t sounded he set off to walk to my Aunts to check if they were alright, which they were. All the windows and doors had been blown out of their house, and the gas cooker was halfway down the garden path, but my Aunt and cousin were frightened but safe and sound in their air-raid shelter. ‘Doodlebug’ was a nickname the British people gave to a motorised rocket bomb invented by the Germans, this bomb or rocket was launched in Germany with a limited amount of fuel, wherever it was when the fuel ran out and the engine stopped, then that’s where it would drop to earth and explode. People would hear it flying overhead and listen for the motor to stop, which must have been very frightening for them.
While the war was on we still had to go to school, we had an air-raid shelter in the playground, so if there was a daytime raid we could go to the shelter. There were obviously no raids because I can never remember having to go into the shelter. Looking back on it, it was a pretty useless shelter anyway, it was built on the surface of the playground, it had four brick walls and a rather thick concrete roof, if there had been a blast the brick walls would have caved in and the slab of thick concrete would have squashed us all! On the way to school each morning we would pass a house or other building that had been damaged in the previous nights raids. Sweets were rationed and as an alternative we used to buy for 1d, at the shop on the way to school liquorice root and cocoa beans, and they were as I remember very sweet tasting. One day large parcels were delivered to all schools, and inside were lots of sweets sent over from America for all the children of Southampton, these were shared out amongst us just before home time.
While I mention rationing all food was rationed so much per person per week, one had to be registered at a shop and you could only buy your groceries at that shop, no supermarkets in those days. I remember the 8oz pack of butter having lines printed on the wrapper, so the grocer knew where to cut it for your 2oz ration. Every so often they had sweets in stock so we would take our ration books in to buy our 4ozs of sweets. Sometimes if we knew an American convoy was travelling along the Burseldon Road to the docks we would go and stand on the corner and shout out ‘Have you got any gum chum !’ to the passing lorries , and the American soldiers would throw out packets of Wrigleys gum for us. At this time we had a large lawn at the front of our house where we played football, much to our disappointment my Grandfather dug all the turf up and put it on the Anderson shelter. Then he dug the ground over and planted vegetables, peas, runner beans, broad beans, cabbages, carrots, onions and more. Not satisfied with this he also dug over neighbours gardens, and planted them, giving the wife whose husband was at war , firm instructions on how to look after the plants, and then moan about them if they hadn’t carried out his instructions to the letter, but it all kept us fed. If we ripped our trousers on the large amount of barbed wire that was around the area, we were in for it when we got home, as even clothing was rationed. Parents were forever trying to add bits to existing clothing, to make them fit their ever growing kids. Some boys had white shirts with flowery bits attached rescued from their sisters dress and sewn to the shirt to make it longer, but nobody took any notice. Rationing continued to well after the war, in fact I had left school and started work when it finished in the 1950’s, I still have my last issue ration book today.
In April 1943 my mother was in Southampton General Hospital and gave birth to my younger brother Michael on the 27th April. At the same time my other brother John was seriously ill in the Royal South Hants Hospital, my Mums sister and a friend walked the eight miles during the night through an air raid to visit him. She later told me that they had to climb over rubble, and fire fighters hoses, and past fires as bombs were dropping to get to the hospital, but they got there. They were with my brother all the next day but sadly he died on the 30th April 1943 his seventh birthday.
But back to the war years great fun for us kids watching the planes and spotting a German one, too young to realise the serious meaning of war. Prior to D-Day we got up one morning, and our road and all the roads around us was full of bumper to bumper with army lorries and troops. As kids this was great excitement for us and we didn’t want to go to school in case they were gone when we got home. They remained there for a few days but no one knew why they were there. The adults were listening to the radio all day to see if they could find out what it was all about, we never had television in those days, so we had to be quiet while the radio was listened to. The soldiers gave us sweets and biscuits from their rations, in later years I often wondered if those who shared their rations with us, perished in the battlefields , but as kids one doesn’t think of it at the time.
In Northeast Road at a field called Birch Lawn was a barrage balloon base, barrage balloons looked rather like elephants without any legs. These balloons which were tethered to the ground by steel wires which pilots of low flying aircraft would be unable to see, and of course fly into and come crashing to the ground, if the idea worked I don’t know it didn’t in our area. We used to love to go and watch them being inflated, and rising ever upward which seemed to us like miles skyward.
Where Thornhill council estate is today was all woodland when I was young, we used to play in the woods during the war and after the war. Near Christmas we would go chestnutting and bring home large bags of chestnuts. During the war years there were several anti aircraft gun enplacements in the woods, that was out of bounds to us kids. Like all kids ‘out of bounds’ is worth investigating the soldiers were always by the guns day and night. Their job being to bring down enemy aircraft heading for Southampton Docks they had searchlights to help them during darkness. During the day when we would play there, we would pick berries and with our peashooters would fire at the soldier’s tin helmets, which meant they would chase us off. Many a boy got into trouble when he got home because he had ripped his trousers on the barbed wire as he tried to escape, I think the soldiers enjoyed it really as it broke up the monotony of the day for them. Even though there was a war on and sometimes there were day time raids, we were always allowed out to play, this amazes me now as I was so young at the time.
I remember going into town with my Aunt and the whole of Above Bar Street was all bomb sites, all the shops had gone. Woolworths was in a nissen hut you had to cross a temporary wooden bridge across the bombed site of their original store to gain entry to this nissen hut. Christmas was very low key, we hung up our stockings and in the morning Father Christmas had left us an orange and an apple and a toy and possibly a few sweets, which our parents had saved in the months leading up to Christmas. The toys were usually home made, I remember one year I had a battleship made by the next door neighbour who was a carpenter in the shipyard and exempt military service. The battleship was made in sections and you had to put it together, inside the hull was a mousetrap which was set before assembly. Once it was all assembled there was a small elastic powered gun that fired small pieces of dowel , another piece of dowel stuck out from the hull of the ship , if you were lucky to hit this then it would set off the mousetrap and the ship would explode, then you would reassemble it and start again.
Towards the end of the war or maybe just after, in a field at the back of our road, German prisoners of war were brought in to erect what was meant to be temporary homes known as ‘Prefabs’. These homes were quite luxurious as they came with all mod cons fitted. Although we were told by our parents not to go near the prisoners, we of course did. It was here that I first saw plastic , strips of plastic like shoe laces in all bright colours. The Prisoners made macramé bracelets and brooches with it, which they traded for cigarettes. Shortly afterwards the same plastic was available in Woolworths for 6d a hank. Strangely I have just seen children sixty years later with it and they now call it Scoopy Doo.
I had better end now before I bore you, there is more I can recall but in hindsight it was a very dangerous time, but us kids didn’t realise it, to us it was all very exciting. All these exciting things happening around us, it was one big adventure. As we got older and learnt more and understood the horrors of war, then we realised the futility of it all and the waste of human life and the family sufferings. Not only to the British people but to the German families, the French, Polish, Americans and all the countries that took part in the conflict. I remember so many boys in my secondary school, who didn’t have a father because they had been killed during the war. That’s why it is important that we today, with all our computers and modern technology, abundance of food, designer clothes and rich living, remember those who gave so much that we may enjoy our lives as we do.

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