Browse Items (279 total)
- Tags: shelter
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Interview with Ethel and Ted Mawdsley
Relates how they met and courted and continues with description of work and life in wartime while in Deptford in London. Mentions being bombed out and going to shelters. Continues with their marriage in Sidcup and details of life and family after the…
Tags: bombing; home front; love and romance; shelter
My recollections of the War - Alan Mann
He reminisces about pre-war and early war days as a schoolboy in Lewisham, recalling events at the beginning of the war. Includes photographs of aircraft and naval ships. He continues with history of events through the war's early years including:…
A few impressions of WW2
Describes life in the countryside during WW2: people being issued with ID cards, ration books and gas masks. Continues with descriptions of black out, bomb shelters, call up, an aircraft crash and taking in evacuees.
Tags: evacuation; home front; shelter
Air raid precautions album
An album to contain a series of cigarette cards of national importance. Shows pictures of some of the things that the government and local authorities are working out for the protection of the general public. Includes: window protection, splinter…
Interview with Margaret Irene Maxwell
Margaret was almost 12 years old and living in Romford, Essex at the outbreak of World War Two. She remembers the announcement being made by Neville Chamberlain on the radio on 3 September 1939. Margaret recalls being issued with a gas mask, and how…
Interview with Gladys Hatt
Gladys Hatt was a teenager and working in Manchester when it was bombed. She recalls her life was a sequence of work, shelter, work and there was no teenage life for her. She worked as a machinist sewing uniforms, which was a big change from her…
Tags: bombing; civil defence; entertainment; evacuation; home front; Home Guard; shelter
Anne Doward nee Tansley
Biography of Ernest Tansley's daughter Anne. Writes of background and family. Gives service history of her father including joining, training in England and the United States and eventual posting to 57 Squadron at RAF Scampton. Writes of her memories…
Interview with Gillie Street
Gillie Street was born in Aglionby, Carlisle, and spent her early childhood in Tyneside before moving back to Cumberland, aged 11. Gillie recalls attending grammar school in Brampton and her first flying experience on a Barnstormer. Upon leaving…
Interview with Norman Freeman
Norman Freeman was born in London. His wartime preference to be a pilot was thwarted by poor eyesight so he became a wireless/radar mechanic. On completing training he served all over Britain, and then France at the end of the war. Norman talks about…
Tags: bombing; Gee; ground personnel; Hurricane; perception of bombing war; radar; RAF Yatesbury; shelter; Spitfire; training; V-1; V-2; V-weapon
Ruins of the Saarbrücken-Burbach steel works
A conical air raid shelter at Saarbrücken-Burbach steel works.
Identification kindly provided by Frank Schilder of the Finding the location WW1 & WW2 Facebook group.
Identification kindly provided by Frank Schilder of the Finding the location WW1 & WW2 Facebook group.
Letter to prisoner of war John Valentine from his wife Ursula
Writes of visits to cinema and of domestic activities. Continues with story of her sister's photographic efforts. Mentions letters she has dispatched with photographs. Writes of spending session in air raid shelter which daughter Frances took in good…
Memories and Reminiscences of Bob Sharrock
Bob Sharrock's story. He was born near Wigan, his father a coal miner. He worked locally until old enough to sign up. He trained at Lords cricket ground, Torquay then St Athan. Posted to Dishforth, he suffered a compressed spine during a Halifax…
Tags: 1664 HCU; 428 Squadron; 6 Group; aircrew; Beaufighter; crash; flight engineer; flight mechanic; ground crew; Halifax; Heavy Conversion Unit; Initial Training Wing; Lancaster; RAF Credenhill; RAF Dishforth; RAF Kinloss; RAF Middleton St George; RAF Padgate; RAF St Athan; RAF Torquay; recruitment; shelter; training
Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Mentions a financial issue and a bad journey home. Writes of air raid and using the shelter and how comfortable it was. Continues with gossip on her activities.
Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Writes about putting up air raid shelter and how they will use it. Continues with news of daily activities and mentions putting advert in paper for daily help.
Tags: home front; shelter
Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Writes of news of allied landing in Spitzbergen, mentions funny stories she has heard and comments on attack on Berlin. Writes about air raid warnings and their shelter in the garden. Mentions changing to the Times newspaper and parcel of baby…
Tags: shelter
Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Writes that she is feeling depressed and longing for his company and goes on with mention of her evening activities as well as problems with the telephone. Acknowledges his letter and discusses content about probability of invasion. Writes of indoor…
Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Writes how she is looking forward to joining him in Aberystwyth and that she is working hard to get things ready. Mentions her activities and catches up with local news. Says all clear has gone a couple of times before midnight and discusses night…
Tags: shelter
Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula
Number 41. He writes about Ursula’s attempt to buy a house and the parcels and letters he has received. He also mentions their outside shelter and converting it to tool shed and of his chocolate store. Writes of his tribulations with learning to play…
Tags: prisoner of war; shelter; Stalag Luft 3
Letter to Hedley Madgett's parents from D Souter
Writes asking if they have had any further information. Writes that a friend whose son was posted missing on the same operation had been notified as prisoner. Notes change of address as 'I was unfortunate to have a direct hit with a flying bomb on my…
Tags: bombing; missing in action; shelter; V-1; V-weapon
Interview with Pat Rumfitt
Pat Rumfitt was born in 1927 and experienced a privileged upbringing as an only child, living in Kent before the war. She describes the resilient attitude to bombing in Bromley, walking to their flooded Anderson Shelter in her dressing gown and…
Interview with Sheila Wilmet
Sheila Wilmet grew up in Liverpool and was 15 when war was declared. She describes the devastation of bombing in 1941, spending nights in an Anderson shelter, and navigating unexploded bombs during her commute. She volunteered after viewing a…
Tags: bomb dump; bombing; FIDO; Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944); ground personnel; home front; meteorological officer; military living conditions; military service conditions; Nissen hut; perception of bombing war; radar; RAF Bottesford; RAF Coningsby; RAF Cottesmore; RAF Langar; RAF Spilsby; shelter; Victory in Europe Day (8 May 1945); Window; Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
Ted Neale's early war memoirs
Ted Neale describes the start of the war and the end of his schooling. After a couple of jobs, which he left quickly, he moved to the Woolwich Arsenal as an apprentice tool maker. On Saturday 7th September 1940 an air raid destroyed the factory,…
Tags: Air Raid Precautions; bombing; civil defence; shelter
Ted Neales' memoir
Memoirs of Ted Neale (written in a non-contemporary diary), recounting his experiences of an air raid on Woolwich, travelling to South Africa for aircrew training and taking part in bombing operations from Italy. Some anecdotes are repeated. This…
What a place to be, whilst there was a war on
Ted Neale's account of when he was 18 at the Woolwich Arsenal. He tells of a bombing attack at the factory, which started just as they were leaving at 5pm.