WW2 Wolversdene Schooldays

I was born in March 1939 so I didn't know to much
about the beginning of WW2 but as I grew older it
became a way of life. When the siren, which was
over the local Fire Station, sounded you dived
under the stairs if you were at home or into the
air raid Shelter if you were at school. We used
the stairs because we could not afford an Anderson
shelter to be built in the garden and the stairs
were about the best we had. Five of us would
squeaze in under there with our'Mickey Mouse'
gasmasks. My Mother, younger sister Valda, Auntie
Milly, cousin Bubs and myself. To pass the time
while we under there my Mother would make us
laugh by making funny faces with a torch under
her chin. When the 'Allclear' was sounded we
would all go back to bed as these incedents were
always in the middle of the night. Later on we
had the 'Doodlebugs',the flying bombs, but they
were sent over during the day while we were at
school. When the siren was sounded our teacher
Miss Smith, we only had women teachers at that
time, would take us to the Air Raid Shelters that
had been specially built on the grass playing
area at the rear of the school. In the semi-
darkness Miss Smith, who was a very young women,
would try to continue with our lessons until the
'Allclear' went and then we would file back to
our classrooms. In hindsight all the teachers at
that time must have been afraid but they never
conveyed it to us children. The town of Andover
was surrounded by airfields in those days so we
were very lucky as nothing ever fell near us but
the school over at Clatford, a village just out
of town, took a direct hit by a 'Doodlebug'.
A young boy who had been evacuated from London
was killed along with some others. There were
times, weekends and holidays that my Mother took
my sister and myself down to Southampton to see
my Grandmother, Father's Mother, and to make
sure she was O.K. While we there we used to
catch the tram from Portswood down to the main
High Street where the shops used to be and the
distruction is still a vivid memory now. Woolworths
building had been hit but they carried on with
stalls with canvas tops. Portswood took a few
hits. One time we would go down and a shop would
be there and the next time it would be a pile
of bricks. We went to Southsea once and the Army
were practicing 'Beach Landings'. It was a bit
scary then because the soldiers had their faces
blacked over and they were shouting very loudly
as they charged up the beach towards us. On
another occassion we went down to visit some
relations in Devon and while we were down there
they had a rabbit catch. Being harvest time the
local farmer announced that he was going to cut
the corn in a certain field. So the local people
gathered around the edge of the field and when the
harvester got to the last corn standing the
rabbits would come out and it was up to us to
catch them. We never did but it was great fun.
Eventually V.E.Day arrived and my Father came
home from the North Africa and Italian campaigns.
Sweets were taken off ration and I spent all
my pocket money.

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