Author Topic: Life at home in WW2  (Read 1396 times)

Offline stuartwaters

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Re: Life at home in WW2
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2019, 04:19:46 PM »
Excellent stuff Dave, this is what I want the Forum to be all about. Thank you.
"I did not say the French would not come, I said they will not come by sea" - Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl St Vincent.

Offline Dave Smith

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Life at home in WW2
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2019, 04:16:15 PM »
We had an Anderson air raid shelter in the garden, dug into 3ft. of chalk with 3ft. above ground covered by spill from excavation. When the siren went, we moved out from the house to spend the night there; unless the all clear sounded before we'd got back to sleep, then it was back to the relative warmth indoors. Later in the war we'd become a bit blase & only went out if there was a lot of " activity" in the area. Mostly, enemy aircraft were overhead - a constant heavy drone, whoo, whoo, whoo on their way elsewhere - but there were a few incidents of bombs being dropped locally. I only remember once hearing the sudden whooosh as a "stick" of bombs landed in Beatty Avenue, less than 1/4 mile away. Toward the end of the war, we had V1's (Doodlebugs) coming over in profusion day & night but again, mostly on their way elsewhere. We would watch them during the day going "like a bat out of hell", very occasionally the engine stopping in mid-sentence so to speak but all those I saw glided on, didn't drop vertically. The sound was unmistakable, the pulsing was very definite, I've found a good one on www.PeriscopeFilm.co "V1 The Robot Bomb" by the Crown Film Unit; this   is excellent. I can hear their sound now! At school, Gillingham County, when the air raid siren went we all filed out to the semi surface, brick built, slab concrete roofed shelters util the all clear went. When I look back, I don't think at any time we were worried that we wouldn't win the war, optimism by my parents I suspect, which was conveyed to us children. My Dad was an electrical fitter on submarines in the Dockyard & spent one night a month on fire guard duty there, on top of one of the workshops. He was in the local Home Guard & spent 1/2 day Saturday ( when he wasn't working) or Sunday, getting ready for any invasion. When they received their rifles, they went to the firing range in Gillingham chalk pit ( back of Woodlands Road). He wore glasses for reading & told us that when on the range, he could see the target but not the sights, so he put his glasses on the see the sights, but couldn't see the target! One night a month they had to man the Z battery, on the edge of the golf course between Cornwallis Avenue & Beatty Avenue. There were 30 twin launchers but he never got to firing. It seems the enemy aircraft had to be over the Medway because the rockets themselves dropped down after exploding. I do remember them being fired one night, the whole sky lit up & there was an almighty whooosh as 60 projectiles left the ground. Dad had an allotment where he usually spent Sunday mornings digging,planting or reaping the results, so we did fairly well for food of the vegetable variety. The bottom half of our garden had fruit bushes-raspberries, blackcurrents, strawberries, plus potatoes. We also kept chickens right at the bottom. You forfeited your egg ration to obtain " balancer meal".All kitchen scraps- potato peelings, outer cabbage leaves, etc. were all boiled up, mixed with the "b.m." and fed to them; Golden Legorns & White Sussex, 3 of each. As the war progressed, the ration got smaller- I remember my Dad bringing out a 1/2 lb block of butter, cutting it into 4 & telling us," that's each for the week"! Although rationed, no one starved, in fact in retrospect I think we didn't do too badly & quite healthy; & wholemeal bread I liked. My elder sister, by 6 years, joined the Women's Land Army & worked on a farm at Hoo. Very convenient as the No.19 bus went from the cemetery-200yds.- all the way.tbc