Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

Progress of the war as seen from Paradise
In general life was very good, but meanwhile the War was proceeding and we
followed its progress on the radio - or wireless as it was called then. The war had
little direct effect on me. Rationing and the black-out were with us. We fed well and I
seldom felt hungry, despite rationing, although the variety of supplies was limited;
stews and vegetable and cheese dishes were common and we ate a lot of bread. Cars
were fitted with louvered masks on the headlights that prevented the light from
shining upwards in case there were enemy aircraft about, but also made it very
difficult to see the road! Drawing the blackout curtains was an evening chore.
I don’t remember reading newspapers much in those days. Most of our news of
events came from the wireless, and these recollections are inevitably slanted by
subjective attitudes, in particular, by the Woods’ links with Liverpool and our
relative proximity. Events affecting that city were prominent in our minds, Tyneside
too in mine. The following recollections reflects these biases.
In l940, the war news continued to be bad in August, with very heavy air raids
on London. Buckingham Palace was hit more than once although no one was
injured. The Queen's Private apartments and the private chapel were hit and many
of the large hospitals in London too, with some casualties. By mid August the latest
news was that 300 people in London had been killed by bombs and 99 injured. A few
days later we heard the very sad news that a ship carrying people to Canada from
Britain as evacuees had been torpedoed; 294 people were drowned including 82
children. In November there was very heavy bombing of Coventry and many dead
and injured.
The war news in March l941 was still very depressing; there had been a big air
raid on London and smaller ones in other places - and ever more casualties. The
news was that an Atlantic naval battle was expected. In the middle of the month we
had a disturbed night with many planes flying over us - our own we believed - and
next day were told that there was an air raid over Carlisle; the war was getting
closer. A few days later Liverpool was badly bombed and Wallasey had neither
water nor electricity; there were 500 dead and 800 injured in Liverpool. Towards the
end of March there was more bad news from the BBC: London had been very badly
bombed - the worst that year.
By Easter the war news was getting graver each day. Several of our big towns
had been heavily raided and many people killed. In the east the Germans had
invaded Salonika and heavy fighting was going on. Early in May we heard of terrible
devastation done to Liverpool by the German bombers. The centre of the city and
the docks were smouldering ruins and thousands were homeless or dead. A week
later there was more grim news from London: the Houses of Parliament,
Westminster Abbey and British Museum had been heavily bombed; and other places
too.
The astonishing news broke of Rudolf Hess's (Hitler’s deputy) flight to Britain.
He had landed by parachute, broken his ankle and was at present in hospital in
Glasgow. The German wireless broadcast to their people that he was missing and
was insane. More details followed from the BBC: he was examined by doctors and
found to be healthy physically, just suffering from broken ankle. He was declared to
have escaped from Germany and was a refugee in Britain. We found it all
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