More info on the war time Bristol blitz can be seen on the following RootsWeb list, contributions from listers.
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/BRISTOL_AND_DISTRICT/
My thanks to Mr. Reg Harris © for permission to place this account on my website.
***
On 06 Mar 2008. Reg Harris <rj.harris@ntlworld.com>
wrote re
During the war I lived in Hanham and, after the war, I wrote up what I could
remember using the diary I kept. This came in handy when my sons were growing
up and wanted to know " what did you do in the war daddy".
It also came in handy when my eldest granddaughter was given a project to find out what the war was like in Bristol.
THE WAR YEARS 1938-1945.
Little changed at first. I went to school as usual and we had the odd drill for
evacuating when a siren test took place. Then late in 1939 shelters began to be
built, some were constructed as trenches and some on the surface as brick blocks
with thick concrete roofs.
The shelter in the school grounds was a trench cut into the corner of the
playing field nearest to the playground with brick walls and a concrete roof.
The whole was then covered with the excavated soil.
Petrol rationing started in September when the price was 1/6d per gallon.
National identity cards were issued. My number was ODWG 159/3 the 3 signifying
that I was the third member of the family after my parents.
I think the first sign of war for me was the arrival of three Anti Aircraft guns
in a field at the bottom of Greenbank Road. These were 3.7" mobile guns towed
behind 3 ton army lorries. The crews set up tents in the field, deployed the
guns and ammunition limbers, and were ready for action.
However, the field had a public footpath across it and the sighting lines were not suitable so the guns were moved to a site on common ground on Memorial Road. Soon Nissen huts were built and it became a regular camp.
Barrage balloons were stationed in open spaces in the city.
There were two in St. Georges Park which were visible from my back garden.
On a windy day they had a tendency to fly around each other
and tangle the cables; they then had to be wound in and untangled.
Nothing much happened for a time, sirens were tested, barrage balloons became a
familiar sight, factories were gearing up for war work.
Anderson shelters began to be issued to the public and Grandma had one at the
bottom of the garden in Martins Road. When the first raids occurred the family
went to it but it was cold, damp and uncomfortable.
Hers and Aunt Betty's bed was moved downstairs to the front
room as that was thought to be safer than sleeping upstairs and they no longer
went to the shelter so were able to sleep through the nights.
However, when the raids got worse they shared a shelter with the next door
neighbours. This was brick built and had a portable heater and light.
January 1940. Butter, bacon and sugar rationing started. Later this was extended
to meat, groceries and sweets. The ration for each person was 8 ounces of fat
(including butter), 4 ounces of bacon, 8 ounces of sugar, 2 ounces of tea, 2
ounces of preserves (jam, marmalade etc.), 1 ounce of cheese, 1 egg, 2 ounces of
sweets or chocolate, a shillings worth of meat.
Although rationing was in effect I cannot remember that we were short of much,
dinners were heavy on vegetables and light on meat and there was no butter on a
slice of bread and jam. We were not short of bread or flour and I am sure that
my mother baked a cake of some sort each week.
The cheese ration was not very big and I think most of ours was baked with lots
of onions to make it go further. The family meat ration was sufficient for a
small joint at the weekend and cold slices or cottage pie the next day.
Early 1940. Whilst walking to school in the morning I would keep my
eyes on the ground looking for anti aircraft shell splinters from the previous
nights activity. I remember that I walked around for some time with my jacket
pocket weighed down with scrap metal. A couple of boys had fuse caps and were
the envy of everyone else.
I left school and went to work for a firm on Warmley Hill making springs. This was dull repetitious unskilled work but I was earning
some money and making a contribution to the family finances.
The school I left was Kingswood Elementary Boys School. Headmaster, Hubert D. Hales. I had been there for three
years and the subjects they had taught were: English (reading a text then
writing lists of Nouns, Verbs etc. and determining the tense etc.), Arithmetic
(division, multiplication, fractions etc.), Writing (reading text then writing a
short essay on the subject etc.), Spelling, Geography (particularly of the
British Empire), History (English), Music
(Singing), Woodwork (using tools, cutting joints and gluing same, making book
ends and a stool) and Chemistry (making clear water cloudy, the composition of
the atmosphere etc.). There was an hour a week at the swimming baths, an hour
cultivating the school vegetable garden, an hour of sport etc.
As the school name suggests these subjects were taught at an elementary level and, I suppose, I learned much of what I was taught. Each year we had a class exam and, if I remember correctly, the highest I ever came was second and the lowest was sixth.
I remember that about 10 years later I had a job which
entailed working out percentages. I am sure that I was never taught the method
at school because I needed to enrol at once in an evening class in Maths to
learn how to do it. The evening class teacher was Jack Stapleton my former Maths
class teacher at school.
February 1940. They started to evacuate children from the parts of Bristol most
at risk. Most were sent to Devon and Cornwall.
Spring 1940. My father took an allotment on ground in Greenbank Road. I cannot
remember that we were short of vegetables during the war; I am certain that
there were always plenty of potatoes! When the Ministry of Food promoted "Dig
for Victory" Kingswood Council instituted a competition with the prize of a
silver cup to the holder of the best allotment and my father was the winner for
that year.
25th June 1940. The first bomb on Bristol fell on Lwr. Maudlin St., Night raids
had started in Bristol, enemy bombers were overhead and AA guns fired at them
but no air raid warning was sounded. Houses were bombed in Brislington and
people killed. The war had come to Bristol and the war, to me, was unreal no
more.
8th Aug. Air raid during the night. Bombs dropped during the early hours of the
morning.
4th Sept. There was another raid and I walked up to Mount Hill to get a view
over the city. There were flashes over the skyline at Dundry. A couple of days
later I learned that bombs were dropped between Dundry and Failand which damaged
property.
At 11 on 13th There were reports of Buckingham Palace being bombed.
Raids by single bombers during the day were common. The enemy pilots were also
machine gunning targets on the ground.
By the latter end of year delayed action bombs were being dropped.
25th September 1940. Daylight raid on Bristol Aeroplane works. I was at work
when the sirens sounded and went outside to see what was about. A plane flew
over Kingswood heading in the direction of Filton. I believe that three planes
took part in the raid but I only saw one. There was no AA fire and after the
plane passed nothing
further seemed to happen. There were no fighter planes at Bristol to intercept.
I assume all available planes were guarding the south coast as the Battle of Britain was in full swing at that time. Two days later a fighter squadron was sent to Filton to give cover and Grandma remembers being at home one lunch time and seeing a Hurricane come out of the sun and shoot down a German plane.
There were complaints about the Anti Aircraft defences being insufficient to
prevent bombers getting through and more were sent to the city. The AA defences
were strengthened with more modern guns. I remember that two large 4.5" guns
were put on Purdown and, after people heard them firing with their very
distinctive sound,
they became known to all by the collective name of "Purdown Percy".
[electrically fired]
18th November. Another raid in the early hours of the
morning. 4.0am, bombs dropped on South Bristol and Lulsgate Bottom.
24th November 1940, Sunday. The sirens sounded in the early
evening and at about 6.30pm I heard planes passing over with the distinctive
thrum thrum of the engines of German aircraft. The planes that flew over Hanham
sounded to be very low. This was to be the first "Big" raid which was later
called "The Blitz". I walked up to my viewing point on Mount Hill.
There was heavy AA gunfire as planes arrived over the city. Shell fuse caps and fragments were falling with a whizzing sound, almost like the tearing of cloth, and a thud as they hit the ground. Planes dropped different coloured flares over the city. Waves of aircraft passed over every few minutes dropping their incendiaries.
A stream of them landed in a line from City Road to Kings Square. More also landed in Southmead.
Incendiaries were dropped over Kingswood and soon the glow of large fires lit
the sky from that direction. I learned later that Holy Trinity church narrowly
missed destruction as many incendiaries fell in the churchyard all around it but
none hit the church.
German incendiaries were made of magnesium and comparatively light in
weight. Consequently many that fell on roofs did not break through but burned on
the tiles. They could still create enough heat to set fire to the rafters
beneath so fire wardens had to get up to them knock them off.
It was not a good idea to apply water to them as the
magnesium burned fiercer in contact with water. I was told that one brave soul
who was not aware of this threw a bucket of water over a bomb burning on a
tombstone and gave himself a fright! A bucket of sand was needed to smother
them. British incendiaries had a base made of about two inches of steel which
had enough weight to break through tiles and get well into the top floor of
buildings.
Operating a spring making machine had been so boring that I had to get away.
By now I was working at Edwards Boot Factory in Kingswood
cutting parts for army boot uppers. This was more interesting as the patterns
had to be fitted in to the irregular shape of the skins to get the maximum
number of pieces from each. [this was known as a clicking
machine] Unfortunately, only a few weeks after I had joined
them the factory was set on fire by incendiaries in this raid and was
completely destroyed.
I turned up for work the following morning to find the fire service finishing
off damping down a completely gutted factory. Within a few hundred yards was
the huge Aero Engines factory (which may have been the real target) which was
undamaged.
I learned later that an engineering works, a couple of chapels, the Kingswood
offices and many houses had been hit. A very large bomb landed in Hanham Road
which caused widespread damage.
Most of the incendiaries were falling in the centre of the city and very quickly
a red glow started to develop; Castle St and Baldwin St. were ablaze; Wine St.
and Park St. were being hit. It was a windy night and the wind helped spread
the fires which developed into a fire storm. The docks were being hit very badly
and huge fires were started.
Later planes seemed to be dropping heavier bombs. HE and incendiaries fell on
Broadmead. Most of Castle St. and large parts of Wine St. were
destroyed. Budgets great warehouse was destroyed by fire.
Bombs fell on Brislington, Bedminster and Long Ashton. Incendiary
bombs landed on top of the St. Philips gasholder but were knocked
off by the fire watchers before the holder caught fire. About 2am there were
fewer planes and the raid seemed to be over.
Uncle Tom and Aunt May, who had been visiting Hanham, were on their
way home to Clevedon and had to go to a shelter in Old Market St.
After a while, because of escaping gas, they had to move to another shelter.
Soon after the first one was hit by a bomb. Eventually a taxi driver, who was
sheltering with them and lived in St. George, gave them a lift back to Hanham
where they arrived feeling very shaken.
Rumour had it that about 70 priority fires had been reported and not enough fire
appliances were available to cover them all. Water supplies had also failed.
Decoy fire sites had been set up outside Bristol but were
not lit so the bombing was concentrated on the fires in the centre of the
city. Not all the AA shells being fired exploded in the air. Some came back to
earth and did their share of damage. I remember one that landed in Highfield
Avenue, Hanham and left a crater four feet deep and eight feet across. It was
estimated that about 300 tons of bombs had been dropped. Official information
was not available but the grapevine worked overtime and rumours spread very
quickly.
As the destruction of the boot factory had left me without a job I found a job
delivering bread which took me around the city so that I frequently saw the
amount of damage the bombing had done and was doing.
My work was taking me to Shirehampton and Avonmouth at this time and I remember
that there were lines of drums along streets and around the docks. These
contained a mixture of tar and fish oil and were lit on the approach of enemy
aircraft to create great volumes of smoke to hide the docks from sight. The
smell was awful!!
There was no kind of social life in Hanham at this time. People went to work
during the day and stayed at home during the evening. At night they either had
fire watching duties, were street wardens, went to bed and stayed there come
what may or went to a shelter if a warning sounded.
On Sundays many people went to church and we all prayed for "Peace in our Time".
Women were needed for war work to replace the men who had been called up to the
forces and my mother took a job at the Aero Engines factory in Kingswood. She
had never done factory work before but was trained to operate a lathe and was
soon machining artillery shell cases.
These were turned out by Aero Engines by the hundreds of thousands in a unit
operating 24 hours a day and six days per week. On the Sunday shifts rotated so
that everyone worked mornings, afternoons and nights in turn.
2nd December. Lots of planes overhead then flares were dropped over Clifton.
Very heavy AA gunfire and lot of activity in the direction of Westbury
and Avonmouth. Bristol docks were hit again with HE bombs. The guns
eased off and then more planes came over. The city centre was hit again, then
Stokes Croft was hit. Fires flared up in the area of Newfoundland St. Next day
delayed action bombs were exploding causing further damage.
6th December. Friday. Another very heavy raid and flares were dropped over the
Bristol Bridge area. Heavy gunfire opened up and searchlights sought out the
bombers and finally lock on to a plane.
The AA shells always seemed to be bursting below the height of the planes. There
were no bombs falling for a while then a few incendiaries were dropped, followed
by bombs around the docks, Temple Meads, Redcliffe, Bridge St. Baldwin St. the
Fruit Market and Council House. Houses in St. Pauls were destroyed.
HE bombs dropped near General Hospital and most of the windows shattered, they
had to carry on with no water, gas or electric.
Incendiaries now had an explosive charge near the fin end that scattered the
burning bomb after it had been burning for a while and spread the fire.
Firewatchers trying to put bombs out were being injured until they realised the
risk and instructions were issued for new tactics to be used.
Kingswood was bombed and a very large bomb landed behind the Ambassador cinema
were several hundred people had gone to watch a film. They had stayed inside
when the sirens sounded and it was fortunate that they did, at the back of the
cinema, across the car park, was an air raid shelter. This contained about 60
people who were sitting at the end furthest from the entrance and were shocked
but survived; four young men were near the entrance and three were killed and
one very badly injured. The cinema was devastated but it protected the shops
opposite on the main road from the blast and these were not badly damaged. The
raid lasted from about 6.30 and 11.30pm.
3rd January 1941. Flares drop over Easton and the city centre. Very heavy AA. A
big bomb fell near Royal Infirmary; some of the rumours called the big ones land
mines, they resulted in huge explosions. Incendiaries fell in Broad Weir and
Quakers Friars. Big fires took hold in the docks. It was freezing hard and
water from the fire hoses made sheets of ice wherever it landed. Redcliffe St.
was blazing. Many bombs fell on Bedminster. A large number of incendiaries
dropped on the General Hospital, the top floor was set alight and nurses and
servants quarters were destroyed and four wards.
The raid started about 6.30pm and finished about 6.30am.
This was the first time that a raid had gone on all night.
My grandfather had always bought his meat from a butcher in Redfield and my
father continued giving him our custom. I was entrusted with collecting our meat
ration there and I remember that on the odd occasion when there was no one else
in the shop the butcher would wave his hand for me to lift up my shopping bag to
the counter and
he would slip a tin of corned beef in as an extra. When I married I continued to
shop there whilst I lived in Bristol.
16th Jan. Big raid on Avonmouth. 7.20pm and 5.45am.
17th Jan. Big raid on Swansea. Planes going over Bristol and AA guns firing.
19th Jan. Another raid on Swansea. All clear about midnight.
26th Feb. Plane bombed Parnells at Yate during the afternoon. That night
Bristol was raided again with heavy AA gunfire attempting to drive the bombers
off.
Fires in Eastville produced a huge red glow in the sky.
A large HE bomb fell and exploded with a great white flash. Then Quakers Friars was hit, St. Michaels Hill was bombed.
A huge bomb exploded near St. Michael's church and although
some 400 people were sheltering in the crypt none were hurt. Parts of
tombstones and bones were thrown over the tops of houses nearby. The raid lasted
from about 8.0pm and 10.0pm
3rd March. Raid on Cardiff. Bristol All Clear about midnight.
4th March. Cardiff’s turn again.
13th March. Heavy gunfire from 8pm and 3am
Clothes rationing started during this year.
16th March. Another raid on Bristol. Planes dropped flares then
incendiaries followed by bombs. There was very heavy AA gunfire. Big fires
started at Lawrence Hill. Many incendiaries were dropped on the docks. Heavy
damage in Philadelphia St, City Rd. and Ashley Rd. One plane dropped bombs over
Kingsdown & Stokes Croft.
The all clear was sounded but shortly after another wave of planes came over and
the bombing started over again. Incendiaries fell on the roof of St. Michaels
church and houses nearby but fire watchers got to all of them.
In Whitehall and Redfield HE bombs were dropped on a row of terraced houses; I
remember that, at Redfield, about every 6th or 8th house in a terraced row on
one side of the road was destroyed. A few days later it was said that over 250
died in this raid.
29th March. Raid on Avonmouth started big fires between about 9pm and 11pm.
3rd April. Another raid on Avonmouth Docks about 9pm and 1am. Every gun that
could be was fired. Another raid there on the 4th.
11th April. Good Friday. Flares dropped, very heavy AA fire. A large bomb fell
in Broadmead then incendiaries over Cotham. There were big fires in Cheltenham
Rd., Stokes Croft and Kingsdown. The St. Philips Bridge Power Station was bombed
and this cut off electricity supplies to the tramway system and those trams
making their last runs of the day ground to a halt.
This was the end of the tramway system in Bristol and all the trams were
eventually destroyed by breaking them up for scrap. The Bristol Tramways Co.
had been assembling imported American army vehicles and when the Kingswood tram
depot became available, it, and a large shed erected nearby, was used for
breaking up the trams.
The all clear sounded but then, 15 mins later, the warning sounded again. Later
in the raid the centre was badly hit again and St. Michaels Hill and Stokes
Croft. Hugh fires developed in Park St. A time bomb fell near bottom of
Christmas Steps. Bombs fell on Bedminster and Abbots Leigh. There were fires
in Gloucester Rd.
My father was still working at Mardon Son & Hall at St. Anne’s and, when the
trams did not run, he walked from Hanham, down Conham Hill, along the river bank
to work. In the evening he had this walk in reverse.
Several years later I used this route to get to work at the
St. Philips Marsh rail depot, mostly on a bicycle though.
Grandma remembers the Good Friday when the trams stopped running because she
and her parents were going to Clevedon on Easter Saturday and had to travel on a
bus laid on as an emergency service to replace the trams. She was so pleased not
to travel on a tram anymore as she hated riding on them as even a short journey
made her sick.
11th April. Churchill came to Bristol to inspect the damage and was
booed by people who saw him walking around the centre. They thought that
Bristol was not being defended well enough.
28th August. Daylight hit and run raid by one plane in which bombs
were dropped in Broad Weir near three buses. Buses which were not hit directly
were set on fire by flying fragments and burning petrol from a car that was
hit. There were many casualties. Sirens were not sounded until after the
incident was over and the plane had departed. I was at home in Hanham that day
when I heard a plane overhead. I went outside to look and saw the plane flying
over Mount Hill towards Bristol. As it drew level with the house its machine
guns started firing and, looking ahead, I saw first one and then the other of
the barrage balloons at St. George deflate and sink to the ground. This was the
plane that went on to bomb Broadmead.
That winter there were petrol and coal shortages. I remember being
delegated to go to the local coal merchant to try to get something for the
fire. They must have taken pity on me because they let me have about half a
hundredweight of coke which had been standing outside in the wet yard, it was
reluctant to burn but was better than an empty grate.
1942. Soap rationing was introduced, but that was no excuse for not washing
properly!
2nd & 3rd April. AA gunfire after a lull in raids on Bristol. When the guns
were fired on a moonlit night little white puffs would appear in the sky as the
shells exploded. If there was no moon each shell produced a red spark.
25th April. Bath Blitz. The front of my house faced east towards Bath
and on the night of the raid there were huge fires causing a red glow on the
hill above Bath, behind Lansdown. Many bombs were falling there and the flash of
each explosion lit up the sky and made the red of the fires brighter. The
grapevine said next day that most of the bombing was on decoy fires that had
been lit in open ground on the hill. Grandma remembers that the knocker on the
front door at Martins Road rattled right through the night due to the bomb
blasts although Bath was eight miles away. During that night planes also raided
Bristol and bombs fell on Brislington and Avonmouth.
26th April. Bombers came back to Bath for another heavy raid and this time hit
the city badly. There were many deaths.
1st August. Private cars were laid up as there was no more petrol for non
essential use.
About this time I joined the Home Guard, officially I was not old enough to join
but I was tall and well built for my age and no questions were asked. The Hanham
platoon met in the old Baptist chapel for drills in the evening and a guard was
kept there overnight in case of a callout. During weekends we did exercises in
the district and, now and again, went to the firing range. We once had an
afternoon learning to throw hand grenades. I took a course of First Aid
instruction with the St. John Ambulance Brigade and I was certified a qualified
first aider and wore the badge on my uniform sleeve.
We had a crude type of mortar consisting of a three inch
diameter tube on a tripod. We practised with this on Hanham Common after digging
several slit trenches in one corner. As we could not fire live rounds in a
comparatively confined space we used bottles as the missile. These made an
undulating hum as they flew through the air and I wonder now if, at some time in
the future, archaeologists will puzzle over a large deposit of bottles at the
far end of the Common.
During one weekend we had an exercise set, with other companies, to capture
Whitchurch airfield, which we were deemed to have done successfully. I remember
arriving home on the Sunday afternoon rather dishevelled. Another weekend we
were told that an enemy force was approaching Hanham from the east and we were
to defend Hanham. We were disposed in defensive positions to await the referees
who
would adjudicate. I was part of a machine gun team, with a very old water
cooled Lewis gun (first world war variety) set at a road junction, in front of
the building between the two roads. The referees concluded that we would have
been killed in the first few moments as we were too exposed. This rather
deflated us!
An outpost was established at Mount Hill by roofing over the lower storey of a
ruined cottage with corrugated iron sheets where our platoon took it in turns
to mount guard. Our duty was to look out for parachutists but we also had that
panoramic over the city. When the bombs were falling we could see most
districts where they landed.
As the bombs fell there was a long whistle followed by a great explosion as they
landed. There was a constant crump crump as the AA guns fired and the beams of
searchlights criss crossed in the sky.
As the night drew to a close the false dawn would cast a grey glow in the sky to
the east and the birdsong would start. Looking to the west there were, all too
often, fires still burning in the city.
The powers that be decided that Home Guard units could be used to man
Anti Aircraft guns at night to relieve the soldiers who were on constant
alert. Our company was allocated to the AA site in Memorial Rd. Hanham and we
began training in the evening to man the guns.
In order that the guns should all be firing at the same point in the sky they
were aligned by pointing them at Dundry Church tower and looking through the
barrel of each gun to the top of the tower.
When this was in the centre of the circle of the barrel of each gun they were
all calibrated.
When we arrived enemy aircraft were found at night by echo location but, very
soon after, a platoon of Royal Engineers was drafted in and erected a huge area
of stakes and wire alongside the guns and this was the early radio location
ariel.
After training we took over the manning of three guns at night. When a
warning was received we scrambled from our hut to the guns. Sometimes we fired a
box pattern, in conjunction with other sites around Bristol, which was supposed
to stop aircraft venturing over the city. At other times we shot at specific
targets.
The guns were loaded manually and each shell, weighing about 76 lbs.,
had to be pushed upwards into the breach which was above shoulder level. After
an hour or two of action you were glad to stand down.
Early next morning we would go home to change and have breakfast then off to
work for the day.
At this time I was working, with a mate, a bakery round that covered villages to
the south east of Bristol as far down as Clevedon. We would leave the bakery in
Whitehall about 6am and head straight to the swing bridge over Cumberland Basin.
On the far side of the bridge was a workmen’s cafe which served hot crusty cobs
filled with a rasher of bacon with a cup of strong tea this was the high spot of
the day. We would get back to the bakery about 6 to 6.30pm when they were
already preparing the dough for the next days bread.
During the Summer of 1943 we went to a training camp near Portishead where we
learned to fire 3" rocket anti aircraft batteries. Each of these had six
rockets on guide rails and were meant to fire a close box pattern around
important targets in the hope of preventing enemy aircraft getting overhead. We
also practised firing Lewis guns at a windsock towed behind a plane in case the
enemy took to low level attacks.
By now I had a little spare money from my earnings and I bought a radio. This
was the first radio my family had and we were able to keep up with the news
broadcasts and listen to the wartime comedy shows of which there were a number.
I assume that they were intended to lift some of the gloom of everyday life.
1944.
I changed my job again, going to work for the Great Western Railway at their St.
Philips Marsh engine sheds. I was first employed cleaning the locomotives and
then became a fireman, first on shunting locos, later on local passenger trains
and then on main line goods trains. This meant shift working and going to work
at very odd times,
depending of the particular train I was roistered to work.
I bought myself a bicycle to get to work and this was the first I had.
In what spare time I had I was now able to get further afield and went to
places around South Glos. and North Somerset I had never been to before.
The Home Guard was stood down and on 6th July all of those who had served in the
anti aircraft Home Guard received a memento of appreciation for their service
from Major General F. A. Pile , General Officer Commanding, Anti Aircraft
Command.
In the early Autumn of 1944, I was sent to the Slough depot to work
trains between Reading and London and on other local routes. This was at a time
when the Germans were sending over V bombs. The V1's engine made a very
distinctive sound as they approached and when the engine stopped you kept your
wits about you as they were shortly to fall out of the sky. Later, when they
started using the V2 nothing was heard before the explosion so these could not
be guarded against.
These activities disrupted train services and it was not uncommon to
spend most of a shift in a siding outside London waiting for clearance to
proceed. Sometimes you were still stuck in a siding and it was not possible to
get a relief crew to you, the longest continuous shift I worked in these
conditions was just over 18 hours.
Shortly before the war in Europe ended I was returned to the St. Philips Marsh
depot and got back to a more natural way of living.
Written by
Mr. Reg Harris.
My thanks to Mr. Reg Harris © for permission to place this account on my website
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More info on the war time Bristol blitz can be seen on the following RootsWeb list, contributions from listers. Covering March 2008.
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/BRISTOL_AND_DISTRICT/
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