WW2 Home Front - schoolboy Ernest Tate скачать в хорошем качестве

WW2 Home Front - schoolboy Ernest Tate

Schoolboy Ernest Tate was 8 years old when war was declared. He lived on the Belle Isle estate in Leeds. He had almost 18 months off school (Hunslet Carr School) due to closures and teachers being conscripted, but he kept a scrapbook of the war which he says improved his geography! He recalls ‘Schmiddy’, a local shopkeeper who he and his friends were so convinced was an enemy spy that they would lie in the fields behind the shop for hours on watch. He remembers a school friend playing with a hand grenade which exploded. Ernest's father was a full-time air raid warden, and Ernest would accompany him on his rounds, looking for blackout transgressions, taking messages, etc, which he found really exciting. The only thing which frightened him was the air raid siren blaring, particularly when there was a heavy smog. At home, the air raid shelter was an Anderson which he says was awful, smelly, foisty, sitting in there at night with a candle in a jam jar and tea in hot water bottles. His mother always made sure she had her handbag and insurance policies. Even though his mother had her own 6 children to look after, she took in a family of 4 evacuees from London. When the war ended, Ernest and a friend went all the way up Belle Isle Road, from school to home, chalking VICTORY on the road. #history #homefront #war #ww2 #veteran #interview #archive #leeds #belleisle #childreninwar