John Steel

Interviewed by Rosemary Christmas on 10 May 2000
Subject: Second World War

John Steel. My memories of the war years were building an air-raid shelter. We built an air-raid shelter and actually used it twice.

Rosemary Christmas. Where was that?

John Steel. This was in our back garden. It was against a very strong wall that my father had built, and I remember digging it out with him, and then we covered it over with – they were rounded tops and then covered with sandbags and covered with lots of things. We went down steps on one side and came up the other side; it had two entrances. We had water down there and medical equipment and some food. We used it twice during the war. The first time was when Sydney was bombed by a Japanese bomber, and the air-raid sirens went off and we went down there, and the second time was when the midget submarines came in.