How Britain Kept Calm and Carried On Read Online Free PDF

warden said to her: ‘I can still hear your chimney clock chiming!’ she replied: ‘I only paid thirty shillings for
it off a Jewish jeweller. He must have been an honest man!’ With the neighbours’ help we cleaned her up and, after a cup of tea, things didn’t seem so bad. Sadly, I lost four
sisters and two little nieces in the Christmas Blitz that followed.
    Phyllis Essex, Malvern

    After every air raid – and they came every day – all the services had been badly damaged. This particular day there was just one small pipe left, with a little water
dribbling through it. People came with buckets, bowls and saucepans to get water. Us nurses invented a guessing game as to whether it would be a bucket, a bowl or a saucepan. It helped to get us
through the day.
    L. Davis, Tipton, Staffordshire

    Like many hundreds of others past military age, I joined the Auxilliary Fire Service just before the outbreak of war. I did my training at the Bethel Street fire station in
Norwich and at a brewery around the corner. Eventually Norwich acquired a fire float. One Sunday morning, after I joined the crew of about eight men, we did a practice run to Colman’s Mustard
Works and, after a good drill, the officer in charge, who was my brother-in-law, gave the order to go ashore for a break and a smoke. The ground was a bit marshy where we were to step off the float
and, grabbing my rubber boots with one hand, I slipped on mud and fell into the river, much to the amusement of my comrades and the workers at Colman’s.
    On another occasion at Colman’s, following enemy action, we arrived as the front wall of the building collapsed straight down, sinking the barges that were full of grain. Colman’s
had its own small works fire brigade and they worked alongside us. After a very hard shift, I arrived home to discover that, not only was I covered in spots of black soot from the engine, but that
I had my rubber boots on the wrong feet.
    D. Bushell, Norwich

    In April 1941, the Luftwaffe again picked on Norwich as their target for bombing with high explosives and incendiary bombs. Huge fires were started at Carrow Works, which was
the home of Colman’s Mustard. I was then a section leader in the Auxiliary Fire Service, stationed at Lawrence Scott’s Gothic Works. We were called to attack the fire at Colman’s
from across the river. After about three hours – around two o’clock in the morning – we wanted to get in closer to the fire. This meant crossing the river and taking the hose
over. To do this, a boat was needed. Looking along the riverbank, I saw, reflected in the water, a rowing boat. It was just what we wanted. I said I would get in, so the crew could hand the
required equipment to me. The riverbank at that spot was about five feet down to the water. So I jumped down. But, instead of landing in the boat, I went straight through the bottom into six feet
of water and oily mud. I didn’t know until then that the boat had no bottom. With just my head out of the water, it took four men to pull me out on the end of the rope. They had to put me
nearer to the fire to dry out before I could carry on.
    A. G. C. Tompkins, Norwich

    One Friday night during the Blitz on Norwich, there was a fire at a timber yard just opposite our boat station. The crew were fully engaged using two forward water nozzles and
two after nozzles, plus some hand hoses, when a market trader, known as ‘Alf the Handbag King’ from Bethnal Green – he came to Norwich every Friday and stayed near our station
ready for business on Saturday – offered his services as he couldn’t understand why two burly firemen were required to manage only one hose. Of course, he didn’t realize the
strength required to hold a hose steady. He was duly kitted out and instructed how to stand his ground. Full pressure wasn’t put through at once, but when it was, he was down on his back and
drenched with water. We never saw him again.
    D. Bushell, Norwich
    It