'I saw Spitfires having a dogfight over Wirral fields... it was amazing. I was so young I didn't know it was dangerous'

MERSEYSIDERS WHO WERE ONLY YOUNGSTERS WHEN WWII ENDED SHARE THEIR INCREDIBLE MEMORIES OF WARTIME LIFE

- WESLEY HOLMES

AS we mark the anniversary of VE Day, fewer and fewer survivors of World War II remain to mark the occasion.

Many of the adults alive when Victory in Europe was declared in Britain on May 8, 1945 are no longer with us. So it remains that many first-hand memories of the first ever VE Day celebrations come from the innocent, uncomprehending eyes of children.

Albert Pritchard was just seven years old when VE Day was celebrated in Britain. Growing up in Norris Green, his only living memories were of ration cards, black-outs, air raid sirens and stealthy night-time treks to his family's back garden Anderson shelter.

Now 87, looking back on his early childhood, he said: "At that time, so many things were on the ration, like sweets. We used to swap sweet coupons, or even use them for gambling.

We'd play marbles for sweet coupons because we didn't have any money.

"Many things weren't on the ration - meat, butter, even tea sometimes.

My mum was very good. We had a jam jar each and when the ration came in, we'd get our own tea and sugar, so even as a child I got my fair share.

"Ice cream was a luxury. I remember our local shops: a bakery, a butchers, a grocers and a sweet shop.

Each Monday the sweet shop used to get the ice cream ration in and we would all queue up outside waiting for it to be delivered." Albert's dad Hugh, a butcher, was exempt from serving in the armed forces due to flat feet and became a health inspector, assessing the shipments of meat rations coming into the Albert Dock from places like Argentina. His mum, Phyllis, worked in a "shadow factory" in Fazakerley, making parts for Spitfire planes.