My War Years

Grandpa mentioned World War II in his last blog, which got me thinking about some other things that I hadn't shared in earlier writings. I told you about the German planes coming over and how we would pull the blackout curtains tight and wait for the 'all clear', and for the most part it was simply the eerie sound of the planes going overhead. A couple of bombs were dropped nearby, it was believed by German planes trying to get away from the British fighter planes and lightening their load. None of them hit the town. The war for us went from 1939 to 1945, so I was only 2 when it started and 8 when it was over, so I certainly wasn't affected in the same way my elders were, but I have strong memories of some of the events. The government moved into Llandudno, took over all the hotels and converted them to Civil Service offices and each house was given its allocation of London workers. We had a German lady and her mother for a short time, but they were taken away to the internment camps and they were replaced by three sisters, a Jewish family, all of whom worked for the civil service. We also had an elderly couple (or so I thought!) throughout the war and she had the plate on her wall that I loved - a pastoral scene of a sherpherdess and lambs, and the plate had holes around it. She would promise me that plate when the war was over, and she kept her word. I still have it - along with many similar plates I have collected over the years with the same holes around the edges.

I was thoroughly spoiled by the three sisters - Maisie, Doris and Barbara, and we all became one big family really. My mother and Mrs. Hayes became very good friends, and the sisters were all about the same age as my sister. In fact Mair and I met up with Barbara when I was in London a few years ago and it was incredible. We picked up where we had left off - some 60 years later.

My father was 35 when the war started and having a family and working for a public works, he was never called up, but he was a volunteer fireman and was called to Liverpool occasionally to help with the awful fires after the bombings.

My older brother Gordon went to work (for EMI, His Masters Voice) in 1943 - he was given a great opportunity by a cousin of our uncle to join the company as an apprentice engineer and go to university there on a work program. It was very hard for my father to let him go - he was only 16 and the full 'blitz' was hitting London. Bombings almost every night and what they called 'doodle-bugs' (unmanned bombs) coming over nightly and dropping. For the past three or four years, Gordon had been playing in the town band. The regular players were mostly away fighting the war and Gordon was allowed to join early. He played trumpet and cornet and was very good and once in London he hooked up with a few other guys and they started playing music in the air raid shelter they went to most nights when the sirens sounded. He got a bit of a reputation for his band and was invited to another air raid shelter one night and he and his friends went over there and played while the people danced. His regular shelter took a direct hit and no one survived. Apparently God had other plans for him.

One look back to a time after the war - I grew up in a household where prejudice was not in the vocabulary, so I was never really aware that the three sisters were Jewish, other than I do remember that there was a time every year where they didn't eat for twenty-four hours and I wasn't allowed to go and spend time with them during that time. But when I was about 13, we were shown the films of the British army finding and rescuing the Jews from the Belson camp and others. These were the actual films and they horrified me - as they still do. And it came to me how it must be for my three friends to see that, and know that hatred was aimed at them. To this day, I think those films should be required viewing for all young people, so that it will show them what hatred, bigotry and prejudice can lead to.