"I went to school with a gas mask slung over my arm for about a year, then we all got fed up of taking them. We'd be sitting in the air raid shelters singing 'Roll out the Barrel', 'I don't want to set the World on Fire'.

We started to get sick of going in the garden air raid shelter because it was very wet.. We'd sit up awake all night, no sleep and then go to school the next day. This went on for about nine months, then my mother said, I think we'll sleep indoors under the stairs.

One night I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was a mouse, and I screamed the place down. I picked up the matress and ran upstairs with it and said to my Mother, "I'm never, ever going to sleep downstairs again".

I was more afraid of the mouse than I was of the raids!"