Chocolate Mouse in Our Shelter

At the beginning of the war when air-raid shelters for homes were distributed, my family elected for an Anderson shelter to be sited in our garden, rather than a Morrison shelter which was designed for indoors. Father painstakingly dug a pit into which the shelter was partly submerged before being covered with some of the excavated earth and grass.
On completion mother thought it a great idea to place some basic rations within, just in case our family were forced to stay a while waiting for the “all clear” siren. Some precious rationed chocolate being included in her hoard.
The first time an air raid forced us to retreat to our Anderson, mother thought it appropriate to comfort us with some of the confectionery, but was horrified to find that a mouse had unwrapped the chocolate first, beating us to it for a nibble. Mother was terrified of mice and absolutely refused to re-enter the shelter again while it was in the garden.
My father had little option now but to bring the Anderson shelter indoors, which first involved digging it up again from its hole in the ground. He then cut a large enough hole in the floor our dining room to accommodate the corrugated iron shelter so it could sit on the foundations of the house. Here the shelter remained for the duration of the war, after which it once again went outside and became our garden shed.
Following VE day, many items were in short supply and rationed, including timber. So the hole in the dining room floor had to be tolerated for some while before father was allocated enough floorboards to cover the void and make the room usable again. We thought we were fairly unique not knowing anyone else who had an Anderson shelter indoors.

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