Home Front Girls

it would be much easier for Paul than struggling down these stairs.’
    ‘Whatever you think best, darling,’ Paul answered indulgently as Lizzie and Simon clambered onto his lap. The children had been down to the cellar so many times during the air raids that they didn’t even cry about it any more and took it all in their stride.
    During the long night that followed, over ten thousand incendiary bombs were dropped and one historic building after another was razed to the ground.
    As the New Year dawned, people finally crept from their shelters to scenes of hell on earth. Buildings that only the day before had formed landmarks were now no more than smouldering piles of rubbish, and all across the city fires raged out of control as a pall of smoke blocked out the sky. What a horrendous beginning to the new year. Would life as they had known it ever be the same again?
     
    For the people of Coventry, the Christmas holidays had passed blissfully peacefully, with no air raids and nothing to spoil the religious festivities. People wondered if they had been spared because of the atrocious weather conditions, or if it was because Hitler had renewed his attacks on London. They certainly didn’t believe that the Führer would respect the religious holiday. But whatever the reasons, they were grateful for the respite.
    Dotty had rung Miranda late on Christmas Day, to pass on the happy news of her engagement and as Annabelle and Lucy were there, she had been able to talk to them too. Of course, they were both thrilled for her, although disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to attend her wedding. However, they assured her that they would be there in spirit and looked forward to seeing her as soon as possible.
    Dotty and Robert had decided that they wanted to get married in February. Dotty’s plaster would be off her arm by then and the couple saw no point in waiting. After all, who knew how long any of them might have? It was whispered that Hitler was going to intensify his attacks, and they wanted to spend every second they could together as husband and wife, just in case. No one was safe in these dangerous times, as Dotty had discovered to her cost. She was still suffering from terrible nightmares about the time she had spent trapped in the cellar with her mother, and would wake up at night in a cold sweat as she relived those long, terrifying hours.
    Laura wasn’t too thrilled with the speed of the plans but already she had found that Dotty could be very stubborn when she wanted to be, so she had resigned herself to seeing the pair married in a Register Office, although she was still trying to talk Dotty into having a conventional white wedding gown.
    ‘You’ll regret it in years to come when you look back on your wedding photographs,’ she had warned, but Dotty had just grinned and told her that she would be happy to marry Robert dressed in a brown paper bag. As far as she was concerned, being with the man she loved was more important than pomp and ceremony – and put like that, Laura didn’t have much of an argument; deep down, she knew that this was just as it should be.

Chapter Thirty-Four
     
    After Christmas the people began to view their brief respite as the calm before the storm as Hitler’s Luftwaffe renewed their attacks on all the major cities. London, Coventry, Plymouth, Birmingham, Gosport all came under fire. The sea battles also increased, which meant Annabelle and the staff at Haslar were working round the clock. Even the hospitals were being targeted now, which meant that the underground theatres were in continual use with each influx of injured men.
    Every time the air-raid siren sounded, it was part of the VADs’ job to get the patients that could be moved down to the safety of the cellars until the all-clear sounded. Those who were too sick to be moved had to remain on the wards. Annabelle hated leaving them there so vulnerable, but the majority of the men were extremely brave and would tell her and the other nurses, ‘We’re all right, loves. You just do what you have to do.’ And so the young women did, because they really didn’t have any other choice.
    Within a week of being back at work after Christmas the staff at Haslar were exhausted, but as Madam continually pointed out to them, ‘These are brave men who have landed here: they have sustained their injuries fighting for our king and country, so it is our duty to do our best for them at all times – whether we are tired or