Tag Archives: Anderson shelter

Pat Burt, Annette Haynes: WWII air raid sirens

Kevack across to North House

Kevack across to North House

I remember hearing war had broken out on the radio. We lived in the stone cottage ‘Kevack’ in the High Street. During the early part of the war when the air raid sirens went, we used to rush over and down into the cellars of North House, but that was only for a short while until we had the Morrison table shelter delivered  –  I think we had that by 1942.    Pat Burt

I was away in Castle Bromwich, near Birmingham, when war broke out. I was staying with a friend of my mother’s, I called her my aunt – she wanted to adopt me.  I was so worried because my mother couldn’t get me a gas mask because I wasn’t at home, and my ‘aunt’ couldn’t get a gas mask for me.  I had to come back home of course.
We had an Anderson shelter in the garden.  I remember my brother saying, ‘If I’m going to be killed, I’ll be killed in my bed. I’m not going down to the shelter.’
Annette Haynes