My raid memories (From York Press)

My raid memories

9:31am Tuesday 1st May 2012 in Letters

I FOLLOWED the stories of the air raids with interest. I remember a lot of this, although I was only seven.

My father worked at the sugar beet factory off Boroughbridge Road. He would cycle to work from Rufforth, along the narrow twisting road (it has over the years been altered). The night of April 29, 1942, he had left home to work his 12-hour shift.

When my mother heard the sirens, she put us four children into the iron air raid shelter in our living room. The boys soon fell asleep, warm and cosy.

On hearing my mother shout, I ran to see she was looking from the bedroom and was crying. The sky was lit up like one big fire. My mother thought she would not see her husband again.

Well, he did cycle home. The nearest to the factory that had been hit was Lavender Grove and Poppleton Road School.

My father, while not at work, was an ARP warden. He always made sure we were safe and that the windows were blacked out. When the war was over, the black-out curtains came down and were washed and put on our beds to keep us warm in winter.

Joan Long, Kingfisher Drive, Bridlington.

• IN The Press all last week we had photos of the bombing of York and stories from people who were children at the time and survived.

We have also had at the Theatre Royal the show about the Women’s Land Army who helped to keep this country fed during that dreadful war.

On Friday, I opened the newspaper and there on the letters page was David Quarrie doing his usual praise of the Germans. He must have no thought at all for the older generation who, although it is 70 years ago, still find it upsetting.

Mrs M Robinson, Broadway, York.

• ALTHOUGH I have to agree with David Quarrie’s analysis of the German economy, I can’t join in his celebration.

I can’t forget the foundation on which it was built – the massive House of Krupp. After the war this organisation should have been dismantled as it was built up during the war on slave labour.

Instead it avoided its legal obligations and continued in business with the addition of massive funds from the United States under the Marshall Plan.

At the same time Britain was impoverished by debt repayment to America, to the last penny. This is why Germany dominates Europe and our economy has never recovered post war (not withstanding the damage done here by all political parties since).

Ken Barnes, North View, Catterton, Tadcaster.