WAR memories remain as powerful today as they have ever been.

The air raids that struck Huddersfield during World War Two have been well documented.

But the chairman of Huddersfield Local History Society, John Rawlinson, was a young child living in Manchester at the time and when he was asked for his memories from 1939 to 1945 they came flooding back.

John, 74, is married with three sons and four grandchildren who all live in Kirklees.

He is a member of Huddersfield Music Society’s committee and a governor at Paddock Primary School.

He trained as a teacher and became head of schools in Lancashire and Oldham before being appointed a school inspector in Salford and Leeds.

He retired as the Director of Education in Leeds in 1996.

His earliest memory was from December 23, 1940, when he was living in Limehurst Avenue in Manchester.

He recalls: “I had been tucked up in bed for a little while when we heard the wail of the air-raid siren.

“I was lifted out of my cot and we all ran down the garden to the Anderson shelter which dad had built there in 1939.

“I woke up and can remember hearing the drone of the aircraft and seeing the beams of searchlights criss-crossing the sky.

“Not long after we were safely in the shelter we heard the bombs starting to fall and the sound of anti-aircraft guns firing from the fields nearby.

“My dad hated being in the shelter and he stood at the top of the steps watching it all. Suddenly there was a dreadful explosion and dad was knocked back down the steps and into the shelter where he lay unconscious for a little while at the bottom.’’

John adds: “A special sort of bomb had come down on a parachute called a land mine and had exploded in the fields across from our house.

“The roof had been badly damaged and the chimneys blown down. All the windows were smashed and everything was covered in dust and soot.

“In my bedroom the window had smashed into little daggers of glass which had flown across the room and were stuck all over the front of my wardrobe.’’

The house was so badly damaged the family had to move to another, this time in Droylsden.

John’s dad carried on his job at Burgon’s grocers shop opposite Manchester University.

The next vivid memory for John was another traumatic one even though it was the day of his sister Lorna’s 12th birthday on November 6, 1942 .

John said: “I was playing in the back yard when I heard voices in the house and when I went in I found that Grandma Binnie had arrived.

“She had her arms around mum who was crying. Grandma took me to one side and said I would have to be especially kind to mum because her favourite brother, Uncle Eric, had been killed in the war.

“I was very proud of Uncle Eric. He had given me a cap badge and had become famous when his photograph appeared in Picture Post being interviewed on the BBC.

“He was a tank driver fighting the war in North Africa and had been killed at El Alamein.’’

And one final memory came during the week of Victory In Europe on May 8, 1945.

The whole class had their photograph taken – and there were 50 pupils.

lJohn’s memories are in the May issue of Huddersfield Local History Society’s Journal.

To buy a copy priced £3.75 including postage and packing send a cheque made payable to Huddersfield Local History Society to David Griffiths, 24 Sunnybank Road, Huddersfield, HD3 3DE.