Childhood Memories of the War - Anthony James

These are some of my Grandad's experiences during World War 2:

Q. What are your recollections of World War 2?
I was only 2 years old when the war started so I don't remember much at that time. I know my Dad was a steel slinger for English Steel which was a reserved occupation due to the skills needed to produce armaments. My mother was a housewife looking after the family and my brother had just left school at 16 to start his job as a metallurgist which he had for 50 years. Again, it was a reserved occupation so he was exempt from the call-up but had to join the air raid wardens as an ARP which is an Air Raid Policeman.

We lived in a terraced house in a suburb of Sheffield with close family nearby. In those days everyone lived near their relatives. The backyard was typical of that time, walled in with washing lines across it and the outside loo at the end. My grandparents lived across the road from us and were one of the first to have an Anderson shelter installed in their backyard. It was partially buried underground with a corrugated curved iron roof. It was very cramped, it was very tight and it was only about 4 and a 1/2 5 feet high in height. All that was in it was bunks or seats on either side. It would only fit 6 in and only had a candle for light.

My first real memory of the war was being given a small cardboard box with a piece of string attached like a present and inside the box was my gas mask. The first of many as I grew and was issued with bigger ones. I had to carry it at all times, even to the toilet and to bed! You had to put it on when the air raid siren went off and you went in the shelter.

My school playground backed onto our house and sited on the playground was an Ack Ack anti-aircraft battery. That was the time I started to see soldiers on the streets for the first time.

In December of 1940, it was the time of the Sheffield Blitz, which happened twice as I remember. The first night we went into the shelter across the road at my Grandparents' and heard very little so when the all-clear came we went home. My brother had been out all night on ARP duties and said there had been a certain amount of destruction but not a great deal.

The second night was a different story. The air raid siren went off and I was in the shelter with my grandma, my auntie, my cousin, my mother and another. It wasn't nice; the noise was terrible, the bang and the thuds. We seemed to be in there for a very long time and when the all-clear came it was morning and daylight. There was a knock on the door and a request to see if the James family was there. This was me and my mum and we said "yes", which was met with a sigh of relief "Oh good!" - but also, "I'm sorry to say we have some bad news, a bomb has gone through your house. It hasn't exploded but you won't be able to go home."

It is believed that they were aiming for the school thinking it was a factory being protected by the gun battery. Obviously, the bomb aimer was cross-eyed because he missed and hit our house. With the house inhabitable we moved in across the road with my Grandparents and my brother moved in down the road with my auntie and uncle.

Ironically Lord Haw-Haw (German propagandist) came on the radio after that night thanking Sheffield Transport for keeping the trams going because they led the bombers straight into the centre of Sheffield and we only lived 2 to 3 miles outside. It was an awful night and my brother said it was devastating, recalling a tram crushed against a wall with the passengers still sitting in their seats.

It did however provide all us kids with a new playground and something to explore. Where once there was a building it was now a pile of rubble.

Q. Did you see any of the planes fly over?
As kids, 3 or 4 years old, you didn't have fear and a plane was something a lot of kids had never seen so you used to wave to the pilots - that's how low they were. It didn't matter to you whether they were German or not (they wouldn't be German because the air raid siren would have gone off!). You'd see the Spitfires and the Hurricanes in dog fights high above.

It was 1943 when we moved to our own house on the outskirts of Manchester, Fallowfield. This was because my Dad was transferred to English Steel in Openshaw, Manchester. Not only did we move but so did some of our relatives because they had some disruptions too. My Dad's sister and husband moved in with us for a period of time because we had a big house. The houses across the street at the time were occupied by American soldiers which was a novelty for kids on the street. When they were on parade in the morning we would grab a broom handle, put a colander on our heads and join the parade. They enjoyed that, at the end offering us some 'gum chum', which was chewing gum. This we'd not seen before so didn't know what to do with it. They would always say "Don't swallow it, just chew it and chuck it."

Q. What was rationing like?
Rationing was in force during the war because there was a shortage of food stocks. So it was difficult to get things like meat. If you wanted sausages you would get one. Bacon was the same and anything else was dependent upon who you knew and what your family members could help out with. Eggs seemed plentiful because lots of people had chickens. Meals were always dependent upon what you could get and how creative your Mum was in the kitchen. As kids, we would sometimes spot an apple tree in a garden and later on jump over the wall and head off home with a handful (avoiding the plod on the way).

These are some of my recollections and I hope you find them interesting.