大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by volunteer Irene Lloyd from Yvonne Mulley and has been added to the site with her permission. Yvonne fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

It was Sunday morning in Autumn 1940. I was evacuated from Balham to West Kingsdown and aged 8 years. "Uncle John" was the owner of the 20 Mile Service Station where I was staying, along with my mother and brother. The siren sounded and mother shouted "go the the shelter". Uncle John decided to go to the bathroom and shave. He had been on Home Guard duty all night and gone to bed only to be woken by the siren Suddenly there was a big bang. I tried to get under the table but part of the ceiling fell on my shoulder. I couldn't see anything for some time because of the dust. My mother, was under another table, in the dining room, with my younger brother
Uncle John had blood all over his face from shrapnel injury to his head. He opened the wardrobe in the bedroom and found that his Home Guard uniform was shredded, and where he had been sleeping was covered in shrapnel, so he went out and directed the traffic in the main road, around the bomb crater, dressed in his pyjamas and dressing gown.
There were five bombs on that morning and the grocery store oposite the garage was blown apart with all the shelves open to the road.
We had a grand piano. It rained heavily that day and filled the piano with water! It took many years to dry out the wood.

The noise that day was intense and I was very frightened although happy to find that my mother and brother were not injured.

The bungalow was uninhabitable and we subsequently moved to the Lake District where I completed my school days

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.