"Seeing the smiling and laughing friends in this photograph brought back my childhood memory of a few years previous. I'd be woken up, dressed in my Siren Suit - it was a one piece suit that zipped right up to the neck with a hood. After that I was put under the table for safety before being taken from there in, perhaps, the middle of the night - all in a mad rush 'down the lane'.
"The lane was a water track down through the cutting that led to the Cockett Air Raid shelters.On the way down one night, I was told to look up to the night sky and could see the searchlights lighting up an aeroplane. 'Hurry up', someone shouted 'It could machine-gun us!'
"On reaching the bottom of the cutting we found that the first air raid shelter (now the bus stop) was full and we had to move onto the second shelter further along the road. After a few hours sleep we had to make the journey back up to our homes - our parents always wondered if they would still be there. One of the houses was hit by an incendiary and burnt out, although I didn't see that happen! I can remember going over to Mayhill to see my grandfather's house, which was destroyed during the bombing a few nights earlier."
"One day I was out in my back garden, when there was a loud noise. Looking up, I saw this huge aeroplane fly so low over the house and carry on up between Goronwy Road and Graiglwyd Road and then shoot straight up into the sky twisting and twirling as it flew. My mother said, 'He was showing off to his girl friend that lived in Goronwy Road!'
"My Dad had an American soldier friend Arnold, who would bring me Superman comics. I'd get so excited! He'd come up to our house in his lorry with the American Star on the doors. He also gave me the skullcap that was worn under their helmets. I had it for years and wore it when I started work. There were plenty of Americans near us in the Cottage Homes in Cockett, whenever they passed we would ask, 'Any gum, chum?' We were nearly always given some."
Doug Warner
your comments
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Wojtek SP8MI
Hello Doug. Congrats! Ur pages are very interesting. Greetings from Poland - Carpathians to Wales UK.
Wojtek SP8MI
Thomas Griffiths
I was 18 years old and working at Stubbs Mercantile Offices in Swansea when a bomb came down and destroyed part of the building including loss of life.
It made me so angry I enlisted and served five years with the RAF most of it in India.
Did you go to a street party in Swansea during the War? Did you enjoy reading Doug's piece? Add your comments here.
Dour Warner talks about Swansea Life during World War Two.
