All you could see was his eyes!

My Brother Bert was doing up his shoes by the fire one time and all the soot came rushing down the chimney and he got covered in soot! He looked a sight, all you could see was his eyes! I said “Go and wash yourself Bert and then come and gave a cup of tea!” He wasn’t actually crying, but he was all shook up, and so we gave him a cup of tea. (Good old cups of tea eh?) We used to have them all ready when we’d go down the dugout, we’d have a tray ready with a teapot, tea, coffee and sugar and everything. The dugout was in the garden — it was an old tin building in like a dugout, and we’d go in there and sleep. At night time when it got bad we’d go down there with our teapot and everything.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Becky Barugh of the BBC Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Doris Saunders and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Saunders fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Doris's stories:

• We weren’t prepared for war at all
• They’d all just started, like me
• That’s how we crossed paths
• You heard the “swish” of the rocket just before it landed on the house
• You’d see a queue and just jump on the end
• Climbing trees and fences
• We took notice that time!
• We had some fun with ‘em
• He’d gone all the way round
• It was lucky I’d already got married

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