Home Front Girls

into the roof of the house.
    ‘I don’t know, but I’ve got some candles somewhere.’ Miranda stood and began to rummage about until she found them. She quickly lit one with a box of matches she had ready beside them. A flicker of light illuminated their pale faces as the wick began to burn and Miranda gave them all a wobbly smile.
    ‘There. That’s better, isn’t it?’ But they could barely hear her for the planes growling overhead.
    The candle slowly burned down and soon they had lost all sense of time as they crouched there wondering what they were going to come out of the cellar to – if they ever came out, that was. Dotty dropped into an exhausted doze and Miranda rose to find another candle. It was as she was lighting it that the tumult outside began to quieten down and she said hopefully, ‘Listen . . . I think they’ve gone.’
    But they sat on until at last they heard the all-clear.
    Dotty woke and one by one they climbed the steep cellar steps. It was dark when they entered the kitchen and Miranda hurried to the window and closed the blackout curtains before switching the light on.
    ‘Let’s see if there’s anything on the wireless,’ she suggested as she twiddled the knob. It crackled into life and soon the announcer’s grave voice reached them.
    ‘The Hillfields area of Coventry was heavily bombed tonight, but as yet no one can say how many fatalities there have been. The Army are digging people from the rubble of what were their homes, and it is feared that many lives have been lost. Meantime, those whose homes have been damaged are asked to report to their nearest church hall where they will be provided with food and temporary shelter.’
    Dotty clapped her hand over her mouth as they looked towards her and without a word being said they were all thinking the same thing. Would her home still be standing?
    Miranda snapped to attention at the sound of ambulance bells and fire engines clanging past the end of the drive.
    ‘I must go,’ she said, reaching for her coat. ‘I’m off to Hillfields. The WVS will need all the help they can get, but I want you all to promise me that you will stay here. I don’t want you two girls trying to get home tonight, and if the siren goes off again you are to head straight back down into the cellar. Will you promise me that you’ll do that?’
    ‘But how will you get there?’ Annabelle asked. ‘I doubt there will be any buses running.’
    ‘In the car, of course. I’ve saved some cans of petrol in the garage so I have some at hand for emergencies.’
    ‘I’m coming with you,’ Dotty stated with determination.
    ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, love,’ Miranda told the distraught girl. ‘Why don’t you let me go first and see how bad things are? I can check that your house is still intact. You’ll be quite safe here.’
    ‘You don’t understand!’ Dotty said urgently as she grabbed her coat. ‘I don’t care about the house – that’s just bricks and mortar – but what about Mrs Cousins and her children? They’re my neighbours and I have to know that they’re all right.’
    ‘In that case we’ll come too,’ Lucy piped up. ‘Won’t we, Annabelle? There might be something we can do to help as well.’
    Miranda looked decidedly unhappy about the suggestion but it was three against one and she saw no point in arguing.
    ‘Very well then,’ she reluctantly agreed and the girls followed her out to the garage.
    As they approached Hillfields they felt as if they were driving into a nightmare. Thick black smoke and flames were belching into the sky from what only hours before had been people’s homes, and the police had set up road-blocks to prevent traffic from entering the bombed area.
    ‘We shall have to park here and walk the rest of the way,’ Miranda told them as she pulled into the side of the road. ‘The WVS will have set up food and shelter for those that need it in the church hall in the next street. I’m sure they’ll be glad of as much help as they can get.’
    They all clambered out of the car and made their way on foot into the chaos. Army lorries were parked higgledy-piggledy, and they could see the men digging frantically in the rubble for survivors.
    ‘Over here, I thought I heard something!’ one young private shouted, and the other men raced towards him to help.
    Appalled, Dotty stared at the pile of bricks, certain that no one could survive if that lot had toppled on them, but the men worked