Page 41 - Colin Wheeler's Memories

My Palace Theatre and other Memories Redditch Heritage

Locals queried why the bomber wasn't fired upon as the town was circled by

searchlights and anti-aircraft guns, it was revealed much later that there
hadn't been an officer available to give the command.

Most of the air raids were at night and we all used to take cover in the most
dangerous place of all, under the stairs, next to the gas and electric meters.

Very often we stood outside and watched the bombers being caught in the rays
of the searchlights, but they were never hit. I have clear memories of watching
the red glow in the sky the night they flattened Coventry, I shall always

remember the date November 14th 1940 because the shock of it brought on
the birth of my sister prematurely.

Teachers did not move around much in those days and a number of my teachers

taught my mother and her brothers and sister before me.

At the age of around eleven the most brainy of the children (and those whose

parents could afford to buy a scholarship) left and went either to the County
High School or the Alcester Grammar School.

Even in those early days I was very conscious of a social divide, I can rarely
remember the children from Plymouth Road or the western end of Birchfield

Road being allowed to come and play on the playing field.

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