Monday 19 April 2010

The Blitz remembered

Hi friends
At present on UK TV they are celebrating (surely that's NOT the right word!) the fact that it is 70 years since the UK suffered the blitz.
Whilst the armed forces have received many accolades for the work they carried out I don't think the civilian population received as much praise as they should have done. Most of the images you now see are of people stoically surviving in the underground tube stations in London although of course many other towns and cities were bombed very badly too.
However we seem to hear very little about the civilians who had to "carry on" throughout the raids.
Take my mum and dad for example. They were both fire watchers. In fact my dad had just retired at 65 years old and instead of sitting in front of the fire with his pipe and slippers he was on top of Hackney Town Hall ( a borough in the east end of London) helping direct the fire sevices to where they were needed most. "Hairy" or what? Imagine being on top of one of the tallest local buildings with bombs falling all around. My mum was there too and she told me but for going into a neighbours shelter on the first air raid she never went in one again. Prefered to take her chance in the open. They were both trained to enter burning buildings to rescue people who were trapped without all the equipment taken for granted now. The "elf" and safety brigade would have kittens now! However after having a couple of hours "shut eye" mum had to be up to go to work. After a raid the communication systems particularly transport were in chaos and mum often had to walk from the east end where she lived to the west end of London where she was seconded to The Ministry of Supply. Can you imagine scuttling passed burning buildings tripping over fireman's hoses to get to work and not even knowing if your work place would still be there. One day she had to wake up a fireman up who had gone to sleep directing his hose on a burning building. The poor man was utterley exhausted. It didn't help that mum then pointed out flames coming from another source!
Hey I think someone should make a film about all these unsung heros. The didn't even get any medals.
Thought for today: Did you manage to get to work today without dodging a burning building? Yes? Then it was a great day wasn't it.
Joke for today:- Did you here about the guy who lost his left leg and left arm in an accident?
His all right now.
On this day:- 19th April
In 1775 the first skirmishes of The American War of Independence broke out at Lexington Green.
In 1956 Grave Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco.
IN 1882 Charles Darwin died

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