Grandparents' Wartime Experiences: An Airborne Radio Operator and a Family Who Narrowly Survived the Blitz

Alex's Grandfather, Thomas Frederick Scott: This story is concerns Thomas's wartime service in the RAF. He came from a very poor family. He was reluctant to enlist with the army because he preferred to fly with the RAF and joined the RAF in approximately 1945. He served as radio operator in the air i.e. in flight. Thomas was part of a propaganda campaign. He was only ever flew during daylight after a nighttime air raid. Propaganda planes dropped leaflets in Germany over bombed cities. The leaflets aimed to demoralize the Germans, influence them to surrender, and inform Germans that the Nazis were losing the war e.g. the leaflets contained information about actual defeats, bad bombing raids, and informed of surrenders undertaken by German divisions Thomas remained in the RAF after the war. He also went abroad to India and Java.

Alex's Grandmother, Anna Mooney: About the Blitz
The family lived in Bootle, where the contributor's great grandfather was a docker and Great-Uncle John was the oldest Mooney of many siblings. Their house was blown up in the war. Anderson shelter was preferred by the family, while the nanny preferred the street shelter. When the family had gone to the street shelter, a parachute mine exploded above the building. An air raid warden said they would have been killed in the house or Anderson shelter had they been there. Uncle John returned; seeing the house demolished, he assumed the family was killed and so they did not speak for three days. John was with the troops that liberated Bergen Belson. All the inmates were starving so the troops gave free rations, and this may have killed them. People who were bombed out were moved to Formby.