My Mum's May Blitz 1941

My mum was born on 9th July 1928... in two days she would have been 91, but she died last August, after a short illness. She had a wonderful, exciting, long, technicolour life. She was born in Liverpool, the third of eventually seven children, and spent the majority of her life in Liverpool - the City that she loved. For the majority of her life, she was a very bright, formidable lady, a mother who gave me goosebumps at times, very strict, and she found it hard to articulate her feelings or show her emotions due to her upbringing and early years growing up in the thirties with very little money or love. Her experience of the May Blitz was a personal account. Merseyside and Liverpool were bombed every night of the first week of May with over 1750 people being killed. The worst single night was the 3rd/4th when an estimated 850 people were killed. The ammunition ship Malakand, being loaded with 1,000 tons of munitions caught the flames from nearby burning warehouses. Desperate attempts were made to control the fire but she blew up hours after the ‘All Clear’ was sounded on the 4th, killing four fire fighters. The fire continued for another 72 hours. My mum and her four sisters, were living at 21 Wandsworth Road in Norris Green during the May Blitz - mum's father had died in 1936, and although the girls had been evacuated at the beginning of the war in 1939, they had all returned home as there did not appear to be any danger in the city. When the girls returned home, they found their mother had remarried, and was living in another house in Richard Kelly Drive, which she shared with another family and now had a new baby (Johnny) and their full brother Teddy who was 4 years old. My grandmothers husband was a Merchant Seaman and did not know that his new wife had six children! Due to it being wartime, there was much confusion, and the girls were very much left to their own devices - Geraldine, the eldest would run to their mother for ration books and food and after a fashion, try and look after the four sisters who were running wild... Mum's aunty Mary, who lived in Bootle came to see them during May 1941 as she herself had been bombed out and wanted to check on her sister - Geraldine told her that her sister was now living in Richard Kelly drive with Jack Peel and a baby plus Teddy.... Aunty Mary said to tell their mother that if she was not at the Wandsworth Rd house with the children at 9am tomorrow morning, she would report her to the NSPCC.... My grandmother was in turmoil, she had a baby and husband and did not know what to do about the girls - Mary told her that they could be reevacuated in view of the blitz, and they all were - including Teddy who was just 6 years old.