This is what it was like as a child in London during the Blitz

When imagining children being sent away from London during World War II, most people probably imagine kids waving out of train windows while mums waved back through tears on the station platform.

But not every evacuation, nor every experience of the Blitz, was the same – and as the years march on since the war ended, it’s more important than ever to document the experiences of those who lived through it.

David Simm is 97 and lives in a Pilgrims’ Friend Society care home in Wantage, Oxfordshire.

He was only 12 years old when war was declared on September 1, 1939, and his life ‘changed drastically’ alongside the lives of millions of Brits and even more people across the globe.

He and his family were aware that Britain had issued its ultimatum to Hitler, and he had 48 hours to comply to avoid war – so when he said goodbye to his parents and set off to school, he knew he wouldn’t be seeing his family again for some time.

‘Imagine a long line of boys, all in uniform, the youngest aged 11 and the oldest 17,’ David told Metro.co.uk to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

‘I was 12 and a second former, just – the school term had not started.

‘We were making our way along Kennington Oval towards Vauxhall railway station.

‘Masters and prefects were acting as controllers, and the whole event was orderly and sober, and there were no weeping mums waving goodbye to a disappearing train, often used in the media today.

‘Where were we going? Nobody knew, or if they did, they were not saying.’

David was among the more than 800,000 children evacuated from London and other cities in 1939 to try and save them from the predicted upcoming air raids – a feat codenamed Operation Pied Piper.

Every child had a rucksack containing a few personal belongings – David’s was marked with the code ‘H30’, his school’s identity number. He and his classmates also each carried a gas mask in a cardboard box, as the UK was sure the Germans would use gas as a weapon.

‘Like thousands of other London children, we were leaving to be safe from the expected air raids,’ David added.

‘Most were assembling at their schools, and all leaving for unknown destinations.

‘Today’s generation asks “why did your parents let you go?”

‘The answer was that the nation (and especially London) feared immediate attacks from the air, including poison gas as well as bombs, and parents wanted to save the lives of their children, even if they themselves were to perish.’

The first thing David was told to do after arriving at his new home in Reading was to send a pre-stamped postcard to his parents giving his new address.

David’s read something along the lines of: ‘Dear Mum and Dad. I am OK. Please send me a postal order, because I shall need a bit more money. Love David.’

For the first year of the war, David had been billeting and attending school in Reading. He travelled back to London a few times, only when it was considered safe to do so.

Describing the trips to and from London during the war, he said: ‘London and the southern counties were greatly changed in appearance. Defences of many kinds were set up – tank traps, barbed wire and ‘pill boxes’ – anything that might hinder the progress of an invading army.

‘In London, many statues were removed and taken to places of safety to the west and north.

‘One such statue, that of King Charles I at the head of Whitehall, was taken down and a pill box was built around the plinth.

‘On the side facing towards Big Ben, it was ‘camouflaged’ by painting an image of a typical (at that time) W H Smith open newspaper counter.

‘The heavy steel access door on the side carried the message “CLOSED ON SUNDAYS” and in smaller letters below it read “Not open the rest of the week”. It was good to see a touch of British humour.’

And life for civilians across the UK was greatly changed throughout World War II, whether they were children evacuated from their homes, women taking on jobs in factories, or men joining the Home Guard.

Jem Duducu, historian and presenter of the Condensed Histories podcast said: ‘At the time there were hundreds of thousands of British men fighting overseas.

‘This did lead to consternation amongst British soldiers that their American counterparts were notoriously “overpaid, oversexed, and over here”.

‘British young ladies had been on rations for the best part of five years, so having Americans coming over with money and nylon stockings was so rare.

‘But Britain had certainly been through it. During the blitz stretching from September 1940 to May 1941, major cities across the British Isles were attacked by the Luftwaffe.

‘Exact numbers will never be known but over 40,000 civilians died and around double that wounded. More than two million houses were destroyed or severely damaged during this time.

‘The Home Guard manned the air defences of Britain. Dad’s Army portrays these men as lovable and patriotic, but harmless and useless. That was not the case.

‘These men fired the anti-aircraft guns bringing down dozens of enemy aircraft, and hundreds of them died during the war.

‘By D-Day, however, the threat of airborne attack seemed to be over. The Allied invasion of mainland Europe would not have been possible without air superiority.

‘But it wasn’t all brotherly love and stoicism. Between the start and end of the war, reported crimes in England and Wales rose by 57%.

‘Putting it simply, there were fewer men in the police which meant that criminals could get away with murder.

‘Some of these crimes have to do with dodging rationing and selling items on the black market.’

David’s wartime Christmases were back in London, because even though air raids were a real risk, he and the other evacuated children were desperate to see their parents.

He said it was normal to hear the air raid sirens, known as ‘moaning Minnies’, at around 7pm, with the all-clear sounding shortly before dawn.

David’s family had been sheltering in a friend’s basement in Pimlico during air raid sirens, but the home was bombed. Everyone emerged from the basement alive, but by Christmas 1940 his family were sheltering in the basement of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church.

It was on Shaftesbury Avenue and close to the warden’s post where his dad was posted – and the Simm family were given a place in the unofficial shelter because David’s dad knew the church caretaker.

But December 29, 1940, differed from their usual air raid routine.

‘The warning sounded early, before we could get to the shelter, so we made the best of it at home, going to the ground floor Deacons’ Vestry,’ David explained.

‘It did not seem too noisy a raid, and when the all-clear sounded, unusually, about midnight, mother decided that we would use the break to get to shelter.

‘We went out into our dark side street, but in Shaftesbury Avenue, the light in the eastern sky was so bright that you could have read a book by it.

‘We were seeing the effect of the great fire raid on the City of London. It was on this night that Churchill ordered “save St Paul’s at all costs”, and it was – by the bravery of the men, known as firewatchers, on its roof.

‘This is one of those memories that I will never lose.

‘Incidentally, nothing fell within a mile of our local area that night. The German incendiary bombs weighed only 1kg, but thousands fell that night on the city and created the first “firestorm” of the war.’

David feels fortunate and thanks God for preserving him and his family throughout the war – during the entirety of World War II, their rooms didn’t even see a broken window, although some of the chapel’s leaded light windows were destroyed.

He said: ‘I realise only too well that one boy’s occasional experience is nothing compared with the suffering of millions of Londoners, particularly in the East End and Docklands.

‘The phrase “bombed out” meant losing homes, possessions and often death of loved ones; a far cry from the meaning of that phrase today.

‘As for my family, we were wonderfully preserved by God.’

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