The danger of Incendiary bombs
NextBack"My dad was too old to go in the forces so he was Chief Fire Officer. The stirrup pumps were kept at my mother's house in Batchley Road - it was stirrup pumps then, not sandbags. When the firemen had finished they used to come back to my mother's house and she would give them all a cup of cocoa - it wasn't tea because tea was rationed.”
“Early one evening, when I was about ten or twelve the air-raid sirens went. My brother had gone to bed, but my sister got him up shouting, 'The streets on fire!' The enemy had dropped dozens of incendiary bombs, they had missed the High Duty Alloys and gone on the houses, most of them were on the roofs and places like that, They all had to go off with the stirrup-pumps, then when the incendiaries were out they came back to my mum's except for Dad. He was missing. Mum asked where he was. They said they would go out and look for him but just as they were about to go out, he came in clutching his hand. Mother said, 'Have you been shot?' He replied, 'No, I hurt my thumb on that b…..y bucket'. I don't know how he did it but he had a terrible hand, he could hardly do his work.''
