[jamesicus]

Manchester in early 1940:

We used to periodically visit an aunt of mine (one of my mother's sisters), who lived in Salford and a cousin of hers who lived in Stretford near Trafford Park -- her husband worked at Metropolitan Vickers. The first time I visited Manchester after the war broke out was one weekend in early 1940, when I went with my mother. My aunt was ill at that time and so we stayed with her for two days so that my mother could help her with housework etc.

For the first time I experienced the actual threat of war -- there were barrage balloons all around the Manchester area and we could see them quite clearly as we approached the city from Bury. There were lots of searchlight and anti-aircraft gun batteries scattered around the outskirts. They had a couple of Air Raid drills (Sirens) while we were visiting, but Manchester had not experienced any actual Air Raids at this time.