Hello all, As lots of listers have sent in their wartime experiences I thought that I would join in. I lived on Windmill Lane and attended Shiregreen school. On the first night of the blitz we all congregated in the communal shelter that had been built underground on the "Green" which was a green space surrounded by Windmill Lane, Heather Rd, Foxgove Rd. and Wincobank Ave. The shelter had not been completed so there were no seats just a concrete box, very cold and frightening for a 8 year old (me). I remember the bombs coming down then an almighty bang that threw us all over the place, most of us bruised and bleeding, the big bang was a land mine that had landed at the corner of Heather Rd. and Foxglove Rd. Then the ARP wardens began carrying down neighbours who had stayed in their houses and were now injured, there were also deathe but we didn't get to know about those until the "All Clear' went . When we came out of the shelter all the houses had lost the roofs and windows, doors blown off and general devastation inside. My parents had never had any one to decorate the house before, with the depression they couldn't afford it, they had saved up and had the CO-OP to paint and wallpaper the front room just the week before and now everything was ruined, I remember my mother crying not about the roof or windows but about the new wallpaper !!!. There was one house that had water on the corner of Heather Rd. and Windmill Lane, they pushed out what remained of their kitchen window and everyone queued with whatever they could salvage to obtain water. Most houses were not fit to live in so we, along with many other families lived in the basement of St Hilda's Church. Each family had a designated space that was defined by a square of chairs, my father salvaged two mattresses, pillows and blankets and we slept down there until tarpaulins were put on the roofs and black tar paper covered the windows. If I remember right there were 2 toilets to serve all of us-but we were ALIVE. Then on the thursday night we got another land mine, but thats another story. SORRY MY EMAIL IS SO LONG BUT I GOT CARRIED AWAY. I could keep going but do not want to bore you with my childhood memories. Best wishes to all, Audrey, Ontario, Canada.