1940s: The night the bombers took Dad by surprise

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John Nelson was just five when the first German air raid hit Derby in June 1940, but the memory has never left him – especially as his dad had not finished building their shelter. John, of Chaddesden, recounts the story.

MY mum came into our bedroom to wake us up – that was my two older brothers and myself.

I was five years old at the time. Mum came rushing in, shouting: “Wake up, you lot. Hitler has come to bomb us.”

Well, that set me crying, so I clung to my mum tightly.

Our problem was that our air raid shelter was not built because Dad had decided that he was going to sink it into the ground and then put soil from the hole over the shelter roof to make it safer.

I can remember Mum going outside and a neighbour shouting to her: “Bring the kids over to our shelter.”

So in we went but it only had sides. There were no ends. But still we thought we would be safe.

Our own shelter was built very quickly after that. We used to go down the steps to enter it. It was like going into a cave.

Inside, there were bunk beds on one side and seating on the other. From what I remember, we were as snug as bugs. We also had hot drinks and snacks to keep us warm.

When the German planes came over, you could hear the deep drone of their engines.

One raid I distinctly remember is when a bomb destroyed two houses in Allenton, just over the canal bridge on Harvey Road.

We lived on the Alvaston side near the shops.

The next morning, my brothers took me to have a look at the bombed houses. All the walls and roof had gone from one of the houses but the mirror on the chimney breast was still hanging and in one piece.

The blast from the bomb took the whole roof off the house across the road.

On Harvey Road, there were two brick-built air raid shelters where the shops were, just in case there was a daylight raid while people were shopping.

I was at Wyndham Street School at the time and every morning, when the register was taken, without fail the teacher would say: “Hold up your gas masks and handkerchiefs, please.”

My hanky was a piece of old bed sheet. We did not have a lot in those days but we were happy.

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