As I've been preparing the chicken pie for dinner tonight, I've had BBC Radio 4 on. Like so many programmes this week, it was about the blitz. On the whole I've been pleased to hear about the effects of the bombings on cities other than London, which I feel has been well covered in numerous programmes & films since the war.
Today, in "The Blitz", I heard for the first time that this was not the first time that this country had been bombed from the air. That was during the First World War.
I couldn't help remembering my mother. She was born in 1910 & so recalled that earlier war. She told me about the airships coming over Coventry & bombing. She was taught to hide under her school desk if the siren went. I've never since heard confirmation until now, that there even was bombing from airships during the First World War, though I never doubted her story.
Her other big memory of the First War was knitting endless pairs of socks for the troops. Obviously she remembered people, especially family, killed then. She also lived with the consequences of having her Uncle Bill live them. He'd lost a leg in the trenches & been badly gassed. He needed looking after for the rest of his life.
Maybe the experience of surviving two world wars, & two wars in which she experienced the bombing in Coventry is why she was always expecting another war to come soon. She always kept a vast supply of sugar & tea in the house - essentials if you're going to survive rationing as far as she was concerned.
I can't help thinking how lucky our generation has been. Yes, there has been wars, but nothing on the same scale. Nothing involving serious bombing in this country or forced enlistment of men & women into the armed services. We personally have not had to fight, or just survive such hardships. A lucky generation as I say.
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