Growing Up on Lutterworth Road During WWII

I was six when war broke out and twelve when it ended. Next door to us, the Americans were stationed, and they used to do route marches around and about. I lived at 130 Lutterworth Road and as they marched, they would chant and we used to run out and they would throw us chewing gum, which was a big thing.

When the sirens went, we used to go across the road to Deepdale Farm and I remember the night of the Coventry blitz, seeing the glow in the sky. My father was deaf all the time I knew him and so he didn't go into the services.

He used to work in munitions in Coventry and the day after he couldn't get through on the bus, but they got through the following day. If the bombers had any bombs left, they would jettison them, and a stick of incendiary bombs fell nearby, and it twisted the doorknocker.

There were two airfields nearby. Bramcote had a massive anti-aircraft gun that we called Big Bertha, and you could see the barrage balloons. We went to school with our gas masks and, if there was a raid when we were at school, they would shepherd us into a shelter.