Browse Items (273 total)
- Tags: shelter
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Interview with Margaret Helen Day
As her father was in the Royal Navy, Margaret attended school in Gibraltar, Portsmouth, and (after her mother’s death) Malta, before returning to Gosport in the UK when she was eleven. In 1939, she was fifteen and working for a company making soft…
Interview with David Kenneth McKenzie Dall
David Dall spent his early life in South Africa. He moved to the UK as a child to live with his grandmother and continue his education. He was enthralled by the stories his grandmother told him about the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War…
Interview with Freda Dakin
Born in Salford, just outside of Manchester, Freda was a teenager during the Second World War. She recalls her family's culture, school life, meal requirements and how she reacted to the war being declared. She also recounts her experiences of…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; evacuation; home front; shelter
Interview with Joy Colbeck
Joy Colbeck was born in Maidstone, Kent and served within the Women’s Royal Naval Service during the war. Her brother, John, joined the RAF on the 28 of April 1943, qualified at as an air gunner in April 1944, before being transferred to an…
Interview with Joyce Victoria Clayton
Joyce Clayton was born in Lincoln and served with the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, where she was first assigned to barrage balloons before becoming an equipment officer at various stations. Whilst based at RAF Sutton-on-Hull she witnessed the bombing…
Interview with Rita Chapman
Rita Chapman lived in London during the Blitz. She witnessed the sight of the burning docks from her garden. Her family sheltered in their Anderson shelter but twice got buried and had to be dug out. The rescue crews asked them to keep singing until…
Interview with Sheila Reid Chaplin
Sheila Chaplin grew up in Liverpool where her mother was the matron and her father the secretary of a hospital. Sheila and her parents listened to the radio as declaration of war was announced and Sheila recalls her parents reacted to the news with a…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; home front; shelter
Interview with Ron Harrison
As a child, Ron Harrison witnessed the bombing of Hull. He describes what it was like to be a child exploring the bombed out areas of the city with his young friends. His father was a fireman and while he was attending fires in the dock area their…
Interview with Brian and Jenny Bailey
Brian and Jenny Bailey were children during the war and witnessed the bombing of Cleethorpes and Grimsby. Standing on a local bridge, they could also see Hull in flames. Jenny recalled walking with her mother on the day war was declared and seeing a…
Three airmen sitting in front of a shelter
Three airmen, two wearing battledress and the other in overalls sitting reclining on grass. In the background the entrance to an earth covered blast shelter. On the reverse 'AVC, Waddington, 1945, L o o o R, Alec Applewhite'.
Tags: ground personnel; RAF Waddington; shelter
Interview with Ingrid Dennull
Ingrid Dennull reminisces about her wartime experiences in Berlin and then as an evacuee and teacher in East Prussia. She recounts various episodes related to the Dresden attack and its aftermath: seeing from a distance the target indicators, dubbed…
Interview with Peter Swallow
Peter Swallow was born in Sheffield in 1929, one of three children. He recalls hearing Mr Chamberlain’s declaration of war broadcast as a schoolchild. His father, a plumber, volunteered as a member of the Local Defence Volunteers, eventually…
Interview with Ray Hooley
Ray Hooley was at school in 1939 when war broke out and was evacuated to Mansfield. When the boys were returned to their school in Nottingham their shelter was in the basement and they were horrified to find when they went down for the practice that…
Interview with Patricia Young
Patricia’s family lived in a 500 year old thatched cottage in Waddington. There was a bakery in the grounds, which had been started by her grandparents. Patricia’s father joined the Royal Flying Corp and one of her earliest memories was of him…
Auguste Müller
Auguste Müller's account of the events at Turmgasse 4/Königsplatz 36 ½ (Wiedersichscher Keller), Königsplatz.
Fritz Hundhausen
Fritz Hundhausen's account of the events at Essiggasse 6 (Inn ‘Stadt Frankfurt’), air raid shelter at the Karl Hospital.
Andreas H and Emma H
Andreas H and Emma H's account of the events at Schomburgstraße 10 (Rheinischer Hof Hotel), Bahnhofstraße 19 and Lutherplatz 7.
Heinrich West
Heinrich West's account of the events at Mauerstraße 13/15. Gießbergstraße.
Reinhold Sch
Reinhold Sch's account of the events at Frankfurter Straße 26/28 (Municipal Police Department), Engelhardstraße 8.
Emil E
Emil E's account of the events at Schäfergasse 21, Müllergasse, Pferdemarkt.
Oskar Spieß
Oskar Spieß's account of the events at Jägerstraße 1.
Staff Sergeant Otto St
Staff Sergeant Otto St's account of the events at Moltkestraße 7.
The Story of Harold Gorton
Describes in detail air raid shelters, rationing, shopping,the absence of traffic and school life. There is a description of the Gorton extended family complete with a family tree. Harold Gorton met Lilian Carmen Mary Morgan, at Oxford university.…
Kitty Michel
Kitty Michel's account of the events at Platz der SA (Housing Inspectorate), old Lutheran church am Graben.
Heinrich Stöppler
Heinrich Stöppler's account of the events at Franzgraben 85 (Municipal Cleaning Department).