Sounds we remember from World War 2

Sound memories of WW2.

DO YOU REMEMBER?

Listening to:

The Chamberlain announcement that ‘Great Britain is now at war with Germany’ followed very soon by:-

Hearing:

The first siren, which created a sinking feeling in the stomach, a feeling which we still live with today.

The ‘All Clear’ — the sense of temporary relief.

The strange sounding voices when we practised wearing gas masks.

Churchill’s ‘we will fight them on the beaches’ speech.

The shrieking of falling bombs and sound of gunfire during the blitz.

Windows breaking. Glass crunching underfoot. Tiles falling from the roof

The sound of aeroplane engines. Recognizably different. Theirs or ours? Friend or enemy?

Crack of the anti-aircraft guns.

Machine gun noise during the dogfights

Rattling of bullet cases and shrapnel (pieces of shells and bombs — avidly collected by children) as they hit the roads.

‘Put that light out!’ from the air raid wardens.

Sad announcements at school. Friends we would never see again.

Listening to:

Vera Lynn singing memorable songs..

BBC News broadcasts………’and this is Alvar Liddell reading it’....

ITMA, (Can I do you now sir?) Children’s Hour .(.Uncle Mac saying ‘goodnight children, everywhere’) Workers’ playtime from a factory ‘somewhere in England’

Lord Haw-Haw and his propaganda. Did anyone take him seriously?.

Glen Miller’s orchestra, symbolic of our American allies.

Hearing:

‘Aircraft’ crashing during the first long night of the ‘flying bomb’
raids. Were they ours or theirs?

The silence when the Doodle Bug engine stopped………Was this one for me?

Teachers shouting out ‘Duck!’ when they heard this, so that pupils rapidly hid under their desks to avoid flying glass.

The sudden V2 explosions.

The news on D-Day — rejoicing but not realising that my father was on the beaches.

The long awaited news that Berlin had been reached and the war was nearly over.

And — at long last — news that the war WAS really over.

Knocks and rings on the door as husbands, fathers, sons and daughters returned home.

Sounds we did NOT hear

Church bells ringing to warn of invasion.

Football rattles being used to warn of a gas attack.

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