I am 74 (prewar model - built to last) I don't have many war memories. there was a communal air-raid shelter near our house, and I am told I was in it a few times, but I don't remember.
We has a Morrison shelter in our back garden. made of curved sheets of corrugated iron built over a low brick wall, the whole thing about 6 feet by 5, sunk 2 or 3 feet into the earth, and steps down to the entrance. Inside a bench along each side, and earth piled over the roof to absorb impact. Each house in the street had its own shelter. I have no memories of sheltering in it.
We all had gas masks, and took them to school. I am told that when I was a baby and the gas masks were being issued, there were none for infants. My mother was told that in the event of a gas attack, the best defence for me was to whip off my wet nappy and hold it over my face, so that the ammonia would neutralise the gas. She was indignant -not least because of the assumption that a child of hers would be wearing a soaking nappy stinking of ammonia.
When the infant gas masks did appear, they were cardboard boxes with lids, like coffins, large enough to put the whole baby in. There was a window in the top and a concertina hosepipe attached to a hole at one end. A pump was attached to the pipe, and someone had to pump air in continuously so that the baby did not suffocate. Mum now thought that the wet nappy would have been a better idea.
