The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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227206 John Hilliard Civilian I am including some of my experiences as an evacuee. There is so much that could be written about the Blitz, the incessant sirens night or day or on the way to school, being in school. Being in air raid shelters, wearing gas masks (`mickey mouse' ones or otherwise). Being in the underground tube station which was being used as a shelter. Seeing barrage ballons, seeing the enemy bombers glinting in the searchlight beams. Hearing the bombs descending and hearing the anti-aircraft guns going off and the shells exploding way up high. Seeing the VI doodlebugs going over and watching as one ceased flight, dived down and hearing the massive explosion it caused. It fell into Lees Road, Hillingdon and demolished a pensioners' home, killing them both. Then there was the rationing of food Being given a tin of cocoa powder at school as a special war-time treat. I have often wondered how many times we heard the sirens. Recently, I visited my old junior school in Hillingdon Heath and they still had their war-time diary. The school secretary kindly gave me a copy. I counted the number of times that lessons were stopped due to the sirens going off. During the quiet period 1943-5 it was about 80 (during school hours). I must have heard them many hundreds of times, including the time when I lived in the SE5 area of London. No wonder, then, that some of us get a nasty feeling when one still hears the occasional siren. John Hilliard Related Content: Evacuees The Blitz Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.