Although eight years old at the time I clearly remember my mother and her parents listening to the announcement on the radio. I had previously constructed an air raid shelter for my lead soldiers in the back garden and the first thing I did was to put them under cover.
Tears of laughter over that post
I was shifted to live in Tonbridge, Kent around 1941. In those days Dinky toy aeroplanes were very popular for small boys. I had several Hurricanes and Spitfires as did my school friend a few doors away. He would construct well concealed hide-outs (hangars) in his front garden for his aeroplanes and I did the same in his back garden. Usually under rose bushes where he would get scratched if he tried to bomb my Spitfires while they were refuelling. We had some wonderful times dog fighting with our Dinky Toy aeroplanes. It was left to one's own conscience whether or not you accepted you had been shot down. After the game thre was the chore of washing our Dinky Toy Spits and Hurricanes under the garden tap to clean off the mud from the garden. Then went I went home to my house I would sneak a quick gander for any suspicious mounds of dirt in his front garden where he may have hidden his aircraft. Both of us would make wooden Spanish galleons during wood-work classes at school, then bring them home and set fire to them in the garden pond just like we had read about in history books at school of the fate of the Spanish Armada. Thread drift - sorry.