Wartime voices
The phoney war
"I was getting dressed up in my best clothes to go to my uncle's birthday party... the war broke out just as we were leaving. I was all togged up and an Eldorado Ice Cream man came down the street and we were sent out to buy ices. The ice cream man said 'You can have the lot' and off he went and all the kids down the road had the barrow full of ice cream."
Ronnie Elliott
"The Prime Minister declared War at 11 o'clock. No sooner than he had done so the sirens went off. I looked out of the window and saw a female Air Raid Warden, wobbling, riding a bike down our street, steel helmet askew, sounding her gas rattle."
Frank Butcher
"Because at first, you see, people thought it was a phoney war, because it started in the September 1939, and we were right into 1940 before it actually started; people were getting complacent, they thought well nothing was ever going to happen."
Winifred Salisbury
War was declared on 3 September 1939. Preparations had been going on for some months beforehand, gas masks had been distributed, some shelters built, ARP (Air Raid Precautions) wardens had been recruited and trained. When the first air raid siren sounded at 11.33 am people expected bombs to drop immediately. In fact it was not until the following summer that the extensive bombing campaign against London began.
