100 Words…no more, no less! This week, inspired by our learning around the Blitz and the reality of living through this period, particularly in London.
100 Words…no more, no less! This week, inspired by our learning around the Blitz and the reality of living through this period, particularly in London.
I licked my cracked lips, trying savour the scrumptious sweetness of the chocolate I had been given. It would’ve been simply impossible to eat even the tiniest sliver of it a few weeks ago, but now Mother says she does not believe that the war will ever start, so the rationing in our house can stop. As I flopped onto the sofa in the sitting-room, someone screamed so vociferously that it was not until a few minutes later that it was an air-raid siren! A sharp shake shook me from my stupor.
“Audrey! Audrey, we have to go! Come on…”
There’s been silence in my house from the minute war was declared. Every time mother spoke about it she stumbled over her words. Every night she would hide in her room and endlessly wrote letters to father. When father joined the army I begged him to stay, but it was no use. That evening I was eating alone again while mother was writing to father, when a sudden wailing filled the air. My hands flew to my ears, trying to muffle out the noise. Mother’s door swung open, whacking against the sideboard. “Come on” she shouted “no time to lose!”.
The explosions rattled my ears as I went to the shelter. The sirens wailed around my head, then suddenly I heard a whistling sound, and everything went black…
Earlier that day
That sweet sound of music filled my head, we may be at war but that hadn’t affected us so far, why should we worry. My dad called from the garden, he often did this so that he knew I was okay. I rushed outside, but it wasn’t for the usual reason as I saw the letter in his hand, my brother was dead. Suddenly the sirens wailed whistling filled the air.
So this was it. We were at war with Germany, and there was nothing I could do about it. Everyone I loved and cared about would be forced to retreat into air raid bunkers or die. And what would happen to me? Would I be evacuated, torn away from everything I had ever known. Trying not to cry, I buried my face in Mother’s soft silk scarf, praying guess how I was feeling. But she simply stroked the top of my head and clung tightly to Father’s hand. As I tried to forget everything, all around me the sirens wailed.
The sirens wailed
We had just come back from church when we heard it, the air-raid siren. We rushed upstairs to take some our favourite toy; when we came back downstairs we ran to the underground. Just as we got in we heard the Luftwaffe screaming through town. London was lucky because we had the antiaircraft guns to shoot them down but some still managed to get past. We could hear the bombs flying and crashing through the sky. Everyone thought to them selves ‘will this ever stop?’ When we got out we heard the all-clear siren was still sounding.
As mother read the newspaper to us, heated by the evening sun, we understood. We understood it all, even the reason of this war, which I still don’t quite understand. But, although that very day, war had been declared, I knew it would be ok.
We were sitting there, in the back garden, surrounding mother, when the siren went off. We were all used to this, but now we really are at war with Germany, it all seemed so much worse. The piercing wails of the siren filled my head, screaming at me, telling me it would not be ok. ???
We were all in the living room when it happened. The sirens blared and we ran darting out the door and into the night. Running past family after family, all bustling to get to the front of the queue. We could see the ominous Luftwaffe planes looming over our heads, preparing to drop their highly explosive contents onto the lit streets of London. Eventually we all reached the underground. It was horrible not knowing whether your house was destroyed or if it was still intact. Eventually the all clear sounded and cautiously we emerged out of the underground. Little did we know this would become everyday life precautions for years to come…