Child of the Blitz Trivia Quiz

Answer: Soap

There were no detergents available. Soap was used for washing everything, mostly the same sort of soap, usually a red one called Lifebouy, and even that was in short supply. When a bar wore down too far to use it was put into the jar and later all the pieces were melted together and left to set for further use.

Answer: In a downstairs room

The Morrison shelter was a cage of immovable strong mesh with hard metal corners and a metal top. It was usually placed indoors in the corner of the living room. It was big enough for mattresses to be placed inside and the whole family would sleep there together during the bombing.

The roof was used as a very large table top. The Anderson shelter was put in the garden. That meant digging a hole to sink the ends of the reinforced corrugated steel sides. I remember the men in our road joining together to dig each other's holes.

As we lived on the North Downs that meant going into chalk hills, a daunting task. The shelters were were made of corrugated iron and although covered with a thick layer of soil they had no heating or electric lighting and so were candle lit and very cold.

There were bunks made of rough wood for sleeping and the toilet was a bucket behind a curtain tied to the bolts that fixed the sections together. Some people had the shelters provided free of charge, but if you earned more than a certain amount, they cost £7 each.

Answer: They were evacuated

Most of the children were evacuated, at least temporarily. Whole schools went to rural areas to keep the children safe from bombing. I went with my school for a while, but my mother was a teacher, so she brought me back and taught me at home. She escaped war work because she also had a baby. From January 1941 onwards childless women aged 19-30 were required to work for the war effort unless they fell into an exempt category.

The BBC broadcast school lessons. One I particularly remember was of a man's excursion into the history of dinosaurs, written as though he were actually there watching and avoiding them.

This kind of thing was needed to boost the teaching staff, many of whom had been called up or volunteered for the forces. When, later, I did return to school we were often given work and left to our own devices while the teacher taught at least one, and often two other classes. I remember being told to read the Charles Lamb's "Essays of Elia" and then rewrite one of Shakespears's plays from the information in it.

Answer: Spitfire

Yes, there was an airport at Croydon. It was opened before the war for commercial international flights for people who wanted the romance of flying abroad for their holidays, but soon after the war Heathrow rapidly took over that work and Croydon had no room to expand in competition, so eventually, in 1959 it shut down.

Answer: Not many were made because of sugar shortages

Most sugar came from across the Atlantic which was a dangerous route with the submarines so there was very little brought from abroad. Sugar beet was not grown or prepared in quantity until later. With so many factories diverted to war work and with rationing so tight, sweets were not a priority and you seldom managed to buy your allocation. I remember my dentist would use his ration on chocolate bars when he could get them and, if you went through a visit to him without fussing, you would be given one quarter of a square of a bar of chocolate as a reward - not enough to be bad for your teeth and certainly no chance of becoming obese on that amount.

Answer: Tinned fruit

The items that everybody wanted were rationed by quantity, but some things were not wanted regularly so the ration books had pages of "Points tokens" which could be spent on what you chose - tinned goods, dried fruit, suet and such like. Eggs, butter and milk were all rationed. Eggs at one time were limited to only one a week per person. Butter and margarine rations were small. We mixed both with a thick cornflour custard so it would go further when spread on bread Meat was rationed by price: in other words, there was a maximum amount of money that one could spend per week on meat; so the dearer the meat, the less you were entitled to.

Answer: anaesthetics

There were few anaesthetics for dental use as they were diverted to the hospitals for serious cases. Teeth were drilled without numbing. The young dentists were in the forces and it seemed that only old men with shaky hands were left. If you so much as moved, both the dentist and your mother were furious with you - the dentist probably because he was sorry for hurting you but mother was worse because you would hear about it for days afterwards from her. Extractions? Not until you were desperate! Some adults braved it out without anything.

The less hardy adults and children could have a brief whiff of gas but I remember some pain even so. Also it had to be administered by a doctor and before the National Health Service, that added to the cost.

Answer: Scarves and gloves for the sailors on the Arctic convoys

It was bitterly cold on the Arctic convoys to Murmansk. Later, when I was married my father-in-law still had nightmares about his experiences there. They would wear several pairs of gloves at a time and though the quality of knitting was not always perfect it was appreciated. Of course we also knitted gloves and scarves for ourselves. Sleeping in air raid shelters in winter was a bitterly cold experience and we were dressed in vests and scarves and gloves in addition to normal night clothes. Even indoors, at home and at school, we would still wear gloves - coal and oil were also rationed.

Answer: A gas mask

Everyone was issued with a gas mask and advised to keep it with them at all times. Gas mask drill was a regular feature in schools and homes. The masks arrived in brown cardboard boxes shaped like a cube about seven inches along each edge. A few people bought fancy shaped ones of which I was very envious but I was taught to be proud of being more patriotic and saving the materials needed for this.

The brown boxes were covered in scraps of wall paper or left over paint to make them attractive and distinctive.

Answer: He was a radio comedian

Tommy Handley broadcast a BBC radio programme ITMA, (It's That Man Again) for most of the war. It consisted of comedy sketches, music and LOTS of catch phrases and memorable characters. There was the charlady, Mrs Mopp who asked "Can I do you now, Sir?" and Colonel Chinstrap who managed to mishear everything said to him and interpret it as an invitation to have a drink "Gin and tonic? I don't mind if I do." Someone who was sent on errands and replied "I go... , I come back." and the diver "Going down now sir" All phrases easy to use in ordinary life to raise a chuckle In each series Tommy Handley was in charge of some ridiculous office: The Minister of Aggravations and Mysteries or the Mayor of Foaming at the Mouth or the Governor of Tomtopia. Sadly, as much of the material was linked to current affairs and newspaper headlines, it has become very dated and its meanings have been lost, so a re-run is unlikely.