This blog posts extracts from E J Rudsdale's diaries of life on the home front in Britain during the Second World War.
Each extract was posted exactly 70 years after it was first written, marking the 70th anniversary of the Second World War between 2009-2015.
31st July 1940
Raid alarm tonight from 9.30 to 10pm. Only 17 people came in. It is surprising how few people bother to take cover at night.
I remember my parents telling me that they only went into their shelter in the garden a few times, as in the Summer of 1940 it got so hot in there, day and night, that they were wilting. They told me that they felt, `if we were going to go, we'd rather go in the comfort of our own bed`! I think they got so used to the raids (East London) that they found that one night they'd slept through having their french doors blown in by a blast. They woke up with the frame lying across the bottom of the bed!
Thanks for your very helpful insight on why people were not inclined to spend their nights in a shelter. What stoic people your parents were - it never ceases to amaze me how people coped in such difficult times.
I remember my parents telling me that they only went into their shelter in the garden a few times, as in the Summer of 1940 it got so hot in there, day and night, that they were wilting. They told me that they felt, `if we were going to go, we'd rather go in the comfort of our own bed`! I think they got so used to the raids (East London) that they found that one night they'd slept through having their french doors blown in by a blast. They woke up with the frame lying across the bottom of the bed!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your very helpful insight on why people were not inclined to spend their nights in a shelter. What stoic people your parents were - it never ceases to amaze me how people coped in such difficult times.
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