Transcript for: her memories of air raids and sweet rations
Interviewee: Mildred Coombs
Subject: Almondbury High School
What are your experiences of the war?I was only nine when it started and we went to live in the country. Unfortunately we lived near an aerodrome and every night the German bombers used to come over and the siren used to go, it was a case of into a cupboard under the stairs. The German bombers, for some reason they never found Millfield aerodrome but on their way back they used to drop the bombs in the fields and it was a case of staying in the cupboard till the all clear went. It could be a bit unnerving, even though we weren’t near the towns, it was very unnerving. Every night they would come over and we spent nearly every night in this cupboard under the stairs.
Of course I can remember rationing every bit of food was rationed, it was just a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We used to go and get Horlicks tablets and things like that instead of sweets because there was no bananas, it was terrible, no sweets of any sort. We were lucky because the airmen from the Canadians used to bring us a bit of chocolate because they were ever so good.
We used to keep pigs and hens for the ministry of food and it was awful when the poor pigs had to be killed because they used to be killed at the back of our cottage. Farm workers used to come and hit them on the head, and the poor things might not be totally unconscious and they slit their throats and you could hear them squealing. They had buckets ready to catch the blood and had oatmeal ready to mix up and make black pudding.