Betty Mackintosh
At the start of the war I was living with my grandparents about 15 miles from Birmingham. We spent most nights in the shelter - this was 3 shelters put together for three families. They were half buried in the ground with soil over the top. There were chairs, camp beds and mats on the floor and a pot-bellied stove at one end. It was my job with another boy to keep the coal bucket full. The fire was always lit at teatime. There were oil lamps to give light. Every teatime Granny would get everything ready to take into the shelter.
When Birmingham was bombed we could hear the drone of the bombers going over. It was a terrific noise, the bombers and the big guns going off. We had a big gun called Big Bertha not far from us. Everyone had to carry their gas masks with them. When the siren went off at school we all had to pick up our coats, gas masks and our books, then we walked two by two across the playground to a shelter which was half buried in the playground, where we carried on with our work.
My Grandad was the air raid warden for our street so he had charge of the water hose to put out any incendiary bombs. After the Birmingham bombing the whole sky was alight and glowing with the fires.