Second world war moms

[sunflower68]

A friend of ours was a wartime wife and mom.  She has told me wonderful stories, the most fascinating being her taking her kids to the park ALL DAY during the London blitz, purely so that they were tired enough to attempt to sleep through the nightly bombings, which would begin at 6pm precicely.

She would put mattresses in the 'cupboard under the stairs' and hope this would protect them should the worst happen.  I cannot imagine the fear she must have gone through each night.

I know it's a tricky subject but I am fascinated by these incredible women and wondered if anybody might have any stories like this, or any war ones, for that matter.

[sunflower68]

That's a good story pickle!  There certainly was an amazing way of coping those women had.  I wonder if we were in that position today would we do as well.

I should rephrase the question: does anyone have any passed-down war stories.

[cheyenne]

My mother during the Second world war was pushing my sister in her pram down richmond hill in Bournemouth when a german aircraft was being chased by a Spitfire.To make the  plane lighter he dropped what bombs he had left on Bournemouth Square,And blew up Woolies before he tried to escape across the sea.But the Spitfire shot him down just passed the Pier.The shop next to Woolies was badly damaged and there were bodies all over the road,Thankfully these were just dummies from the shop window.

[spudqueen]

My Mum ( who was a child during the war) and her family would shelter in the cellar during bombing raids, though if my Gran needed to go to the toilet she would run upstairs to the bathroom, until they went to Liverpool one day and saw a bombed out house and all that was left of it was two walls and the toilet! "Think of the poor person sat on that she said". After that she would run to the top of the cellar stairs to use a Po!

[ratbag66]

My dad was a very small boy during the war, he was born a month after war broke out.  He and his brothers used to walk to he local prisoner-of-war camp and were given chocolate by the Italian prisoners - he loved it! 

[Gilli]

You may enjoy reading this :

Wartime Britain 1939-1945 - Juliet Gardiner

This is the experience of war in the UK (as opposed to battles abroad etc.)

The book's divided up into different chapters such as rationing and evacuation and uses interviews, diaries, letters and so forth to relate the individual British person's perspective, be they young, old or somewhere in between.

Another classic book, along the same vein is:

How We Lived Then - by Norman Longmate

My parents use to have this 9I'm now 40) and I was fascinated by it, reading it over and over again.

Unfortunately, I don't have many stories to relate from my parent's own experiences of WW2. My mum was 5 when it started and when asked, her memories are of missing a fair bit of school at the start, and having to spend nights in a damp shelter in the garden. My dad was older and was called up in 1944 aged 18. Regrettably, he died comparatively young before I ever really got to speak to him at length about his combat experience ...... he used to talk a lot about the years after the war (when he was still doing national service in Egypt) but never said much about his experience in France & Belgium during the war. I can't imagine today's average 18 yr old fighting for their country ..... can only imagine that 1944/45 were years he'd prefer to forget, understandably.

[Little Lady]

My grandad was in the second world war as a mechanic, he was in the desert at one point and slept on scopions and found snakes in his sleeping bag before, not something i would want to come across, my nan had to look after my dad and his brother who was an invalid and unfortunately passed away at the age of 24. My nan didn't see my grandad for over 4 years but they wrote to each other daily. She said to my dad that she got through it and told my dad to 'love like that were away at war' if he having relationship problems, and live like you never have another day. She died when i was 3 so i dont have stories from her sadly.

[GucciGal]

my Dad is Italian and was born in 1934. He remembers being very hungry and getting food from the US soilders. Bread and choclate mainly.

[sunflower68]

Thanks Gilli, those books sound right up my street.The stories posted are fascinating; it's good to know somebody has kept something down on paper.  My nan lives in a nursing home with lots of ladies who must have millions of amazing stories between them; unfortunately I guess we'll never hear them now.

[smudge]

My Mum & Dad used to tell us lots of stories about living in WW1 & WW2. But as I'm just off out, I thought you might like to read this book too, which incidentally, I'm half way through! It's called:

War Wives by Colin & Eileen Townsend

It's 'A Second World War Anthology', full of the sort of war stories you are looking for - it's brilliant. Scuse haste!

[heatherglen]

I was born in 1940 and one of my earliest memories is being wrapped in a blanket and passed through the bedroom window into someone's hands and taken to the shelter. I also recall being held up high to watch the flames as clydebank was bombed - we lived a distance away.

Mum told the story that when first issued with gas masks, babies were put in a type of box and a transparent lid was put over it - when a neighbour saw me gasping for breath, mum realised that she had to pump air into the contraption!

Mum had just come back from the laundry and was haning out the washing, she left my sister and me sitting on the kitchen floor. Her message bag was standing still full of the weeks rations. I (my sister says it must have been me), decided to rub the butter ration over the walls and then added the sugar!!!!!!!!!!!!! No comment.

I enjoyed the following book. The Flamboya Tree.

[jno]

The BBC is looking for world war 2 memories, should anyone want to contribute: www.bbc.co.uk/ww2