Memories of a five year old.

BBC WW2 Peoples' War.

Memories of a five year old.

This is not the record of a single event, rather a random collection of memories from
a period early in my life.
I was born in 1936 and lived for the duration of the war on the South West outskirts
of Leicester.

My earliest memory is of being on holiday at Chapel St. Leonards in Lincolnshire on
the day war was declared and being got ready to go home by my Father.

My family were involved in various ways, an uncle served in the Far East as an LAC
in the RAF, another uncle was, in what I understand was a reserved occupation, a
butcher. His elder brother had a far more interesting job. He had experience in
the family bedding manufacturing business and so was employed in the design and
making of dummy vehicles for use on decoy sites across the country.

My father began in the Auxiliary Fire Service, later transferring to the National Fire
Service, spending some time located in Grimsby. I remember he was sheltering
with a soldier during an air raid on the docks, an incendiary bomb landed near by
and failed to detonate. The soldier quite coolly picked it up, unscrewed the cap
and shook out the charge and gave it to my father saying 'Here's a souvenir for you'.
Another relic brought home was the remains of a German machine gun from a
shot - down aircraft. Neither of these stayed around long at home but I still have
a U. S. Navy cap my father was given by an American sailor. During his time in the
fire service my father contracted tuberculosis, from which he died in 1947.

From my bedroom window I had a distant view of Tiger Moth training aircraft
practising 'circuits and bumps' at Braunstone Aerodrome, this is forever
commemorated by a pub opposite the airfield being named the 'Airman's Rest'.

We had one or two exciting moments, usually when air raids were in progress and
everyone retired to the street shelters, sitting more than half asleep in
candlelight. Whether the shelters offered any real, rather than psychological,
protection I am not sure but judging by the ease with which they were demolished
after the war I doubt it. One memorable night a bomb was jettisoned by a bomber
allegedly fleeing a night fighter, the bomb missed our houses, falling some
200yds away in open fields and shattering all the windows in houses backing on to the
fields, all the shop front windows in our two local shops and scattering
shrapnel everywhere. A girl about my age slept through the whole event, to be
woken to find her bed covered with glass. No one was injured.

Sometime during the war a Shadow Factory complete with a guard tower was built along the main road into the
city, this was forever known as the 'Lockheed' , it was employed in
making Hydraulic equipment for aircraft landing gear, I believe. The building was fully
camouflaged, traces of which remained until a few years ago when the
factory was demolished, having been used since just after the war by a Leicester
company of Machine Tool makers.

A large force of American troops was stationed on the local park, presumably prior to
D-Day. Later we saw marshalled along the main road a huge convoy of American forces, much to the delight of the local kids who spent some time working along the convoy to see what could be begged in the way of chocolate and candy.

An unexpected consequence of the Americans’ stay was that all the rubbish (‘trash’) produced by them was disposed of on a nearby low lying site adjacent to the River Soar. This was a magnet for kids seemingly from miles around scavenging U.S. Army junk. The prize find was a relatively undamaged G.I’s helmet. The rubbish tip was eventually levelled and became playing fields, it should prove rewarding to future archaeologists.

I imagine everyone living in the area during the war will remember Power Jets. Our house was situated quite high and about 4 miles from the Power Jets factory at Whetstone and I have a lasting memory of the constant noise of jet engines under test, day and night, week after week. No one could ever have visualised the effect on the world that was to follow.

VE Day was celebrated by not only the obligatory street party, but also a huge bonfire was built on the road junction outside our house. I do not think the local authorities were too impressed by the state of the road the following morning as the VJ Day bonfire was built on waste ground. The Guest of Honour for our VE Day party was an officer from the Maltese Navy. I decided to buy him a gift from the local newsagents as a memento of his visit. Needless to say, it being the end of the war, there was not much of a selection, in fact a choice between two books, he was presented with a book on First Aid, price 6d. He was quite touched by this and promised to keep it for the rest of his life. I still wonder what became of him.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.