United Kingdom-Who remembers Bread and Dripping.

Britain at War: I never considerered we could lose

I was born on 3rd of December 1929 and in the years leading up to the war I was quite apprehensive of the possibility of war.

The first world-war which had lasted for four years finished in 1918 and was still fresh in the minds of people of my parents’ age or older, and it seemed to be a frequent topic of conversation. I was an avid reader and when I visited my grandparents I would often pore over a two volume edition of "The war in pictures".

When the war was declared I was nine years old and have no recollection of fear then, or throughout the war. It did not enter my head that the allies could lose the war.

We lived about seven miles up the valley from Swansea and I remember seeing the inferno when Swansea was blitzed by high explosive and incendiary bombs. At this distance we seemed to be almost immune, and luckily none of our family were harmed although part of the family lost a small business premises in the bombing.

The only family member who was directly involved was my uncle Sid who was called-up about 1942. He served in the RASC as a carpenter and landed in France on ’D’ Day+6 (June 12th. 1944) and survived unscathed; I still have a few souvenirs which he gave me on his return. My father was drafted in 1942 to work in Sheffield at the Arthur Lee metal works and remained there to the end of the war.

We children carried gas-masks to school and were required during air-raid alerts to gather in the school corridors, as far as possible from any windows. The nearest bombs we experienced were dropped about a mile away in a string of about ten in the fields along the valley floor, one crater about 20 foot wide is still visible. It was said at the time that they were dropped in panic by a bomber which was being chased by a night-fighter. Visually my greatest recollection was of the barrage balloons which hung in the sky over Swansea docks and the Llandarcy oil-refinery.

I have few recollections of the progress of the war until about 1943 when I started a rather sketchy war scrapbook, which I still possess. Although I’ve never been a big eater, I do remember having pangs for pre-war savouries such as butter, cheese, beef and pork dripping etc. As I have never had a sweet-tooth I was lucky not to have pangs for sugar, sweets, etc. as they were very scarce. If I remember correctly we had rations of 2 ounces butter/fats, cheese meats, sweets, per person per week.

W C Chilcott, Swansea