MARJORIE GILL
When the war started we were teenagers, not long out of school, rather happy-go-lucky having lived in the aftermath of the first World War and in expectancy of the second. The day the war started the air raid sirens sounded very quickly and lots of people expected we would all be gassed, due to the fact that it was in use at the end of the previous war. My husband to be, brother and father were all in reserve forces and therefore called up immediately.
To start with things were reasonably quiet with just occasional minor air raids. In 1941 things really began to happen and the centre of Hull was almost demolished. The day after the first big raid, my cousin and I went for a walk round the town and wept at the sight of the devastation. The next night the bombers returned and finished off with incendary bombs. We were lucky and lived west of the city, which got off rather lightly. The people from the east of Hull suffered badly and we watched them night after night trekking with a few belongings to the fields to the west; luckily it was a hot summer and not too bad for camping out or sleeping in the air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden as we did. Actually we could have stayed in our beds as we were not damaged.
It wasn't all doom and gloom. We were reasonably well off for food and we all shared and swapped things. The Americans joined the war and brought us nylons, very expensive but they lasted for ages. We were married in 1943 and thanks to friends and relations had a good reception in the Church Scouts Den. The hall was full of furniture from bombed houses. We honeymooned in London when the 'doodle-bugs' (unmanned missiles) were falling; we were quite blase by then.
The saddest times were losing lots of friends of our age in the forces. I went down to Winchester for five days just prior to D Day; it was actually forbidden territory but it was worth the risk and we had a lovely time in a little hotel with a walled garden, it was hard to believe there was a war and a lot of the men were soon to go and be killed a few days later.
When the war finished, all the young men had to stay in the forces for almost another year, by which time jobs were hard to come by especially as they had no experience but we were blissfully happy to survive with virtually nothing materially, a demob suit and enough money to buy a very old banger of a car.
When the war finished, all the young men had to stay in the forces for almost another year, by which time jobs were hard to come by especially as they had no experience but we were blissfully happy to survive with virtually nothing materially, a demob suit and enough money to buy a very old banger of a car.