I recently came across this website: www.bombsight.org. It maps where the bombs fell in the Blitz. My street had one hit. It also has accounts of those dark days in diaries, letters and memoirs.
A child living in Hammersmith Grove remembers food rationing, especially sweets. A Mars bar was sliced and a bit given to him daily. The windows were boarded up at night to stop being hurt by splinters of glass. There was the same problem when the IRA were bombing London: government office windows were fitted with voluminous net curtains weighted with lead at the bottom to contain the glass. I worked in an office in the City with a protectective layer on the glass (a bit like cling film).
There are letters to soldiers telling of the minutiae of life: choosing a chain and pendant for mother’s birthday, what colour the settee cushions should be and how thanks to the RAF there have not been too many bombs as far west as Hammersmith. A soldier from Yorkshire cannot get home for his weekend leave and is invited to stay with a friend in London. There is a rumour that the Glenn Miller Orchestra will give an impromptu concert on their way through London to an American airbase. Their bus stops at the Hammersmith Palais and the band plays for forty-five minutes – a great boost for morale.
A teenager in Acton remembers –
Ration books and clothing coupons, food shortages and tightened belts became the norm, as, at school, did gas-mask drills in which we donned our masks and worked in them for a short while to become used to them. They smelt dankly rubbery. However sometimes we had a bit of fun as they could emit snorting noises!
My Mother had lined curtains with yards and yards of blackout material, and our large sash windows were criss-crossed with sticky tape. A stirrup pump, bucket of water and bucket of sand stood handy in case of incendiary bombs. All through the war, wherever we lived, we each kept a small case ready packed with spare clothing, wash things, a torch, and any valuables.
Wherever we went we carried our gas mask in its cardboard case on a strap over our shoulder. We each wore an identity bracelet with name and identity number. Mine was BRBA 2183. Butter and bacon rationing began on Dec. 8th – 4 oz of each per person per week. (Copyright BBC WW2 People’s War)
We have been fortunate in London for the last few years but we should not take this security for granted. In a very crowded tube carriage on the day of the London Marathon this year I was aware how easy it would be for one person with a bomb to murder innocent people.
The only time that my mother ever seriously became foul of the law was when she was cautioned (and possibly fined) by the police for not having proper black out curtains on her windows in London. To her dying day she used to declare this whenever asked for any such information on a form!