The War Years

A Memory of Sunderland.

I was born in Hawthorn Street, Millfield in 1930. Went to Diamond Hall School. I remember the day war was declared, my mother said the Germans would bomb us because of all the industry around us. My father was in the Territorial Army so he was called up the next day and was put in the Sunderlands 125th Anti - Tank Regiment. We never saw him again until after the war. The schools were closed down until air raid shelters were built. We moved to 14 Hedley Street in 1940. There were nightly air raids and we took shelter under the stairs. In May 1943 there was a real heavy raid which demolished the town centre with many deaths. One week later was the heaviest raid of the
war; a 500 kilo bomb fell about 60 feet from our door. It blew out all the windows and doors and the roof we were covered in plaster dust and soot, but only had minor cuts, others were not so lucky; it killed Mrs Briggs age 53, Elsie Tate 16 and a weeks old baby of Mrs Price. There were many injuries. Hedley Street does not exist anymore. It used to be between Depford Road and Millburn St.

---

---