BLackouts and Air Raids During WW2

The blackouts and raids were a very tough experience during the war.It was very tough going about your daily business throughout them. It became difficult and easy to forget to put out your hall light if someone knocked on your door. To black out the light from my house, my mother and father used to put up black curtains or put up brown paper against the windows. If people failed to do this, wardens would go about shouting "Put that light out!!" If you got too many warnings this could lead to a heavy fine.

Normal things like walking home from school became very difficult during the winter when it got darker earlier, as street lights had to be dimmed and we could hardly see where we were going. We also used to get into trouble for walking out in front of cars because they had to dim their lights.

German soldier's "Auf Wiedersehen" (LOC)

Germans at Princeton -- Weitzer - Lt. Reichenau - ...

German Doctors at Ellis Island (LOC)

Women and children would report that they had been followed home by men and were now too scared to go out by themselves at night.

Some people complained about feeling claustrophobic as they had no light around them. People in buildings had to be extremely careful and not let a fire start as this would act as a torch if a German plane was flying above them. I didn't really enjoy the blackouts as it felt unusual when they first started as it wasn't what I was used to, but later on into it, I soon adapted to it.

During the war everyone started to prepare for "Air Raids". These were when German planes would fly over cities and drop bombs. There were 2 main types of bombs: one of them exploded when it ran out of fuel falling from the sky and the other one started a fire...