大象传媒

View From the Train 鈥� Bristol Raids

My parents originated in the Stroud area, and we still had lots of relatives there, and used to visit them regularly. My father was fortunate in that he was on essential war work working at Weston in the factory. We used to catch the train from Weston Super Mare and change at Temple Meads for the train to Stroud. Well on this occasion we were coming home and we鈥檇 left Stroud in the evening and caught the train.
Everything was going to plan but then, as the train was coming into Bristol, it suddenly stopped and we thought, 鈥淥h damn, signals鈥�, but when we looked out we could see this great glow. We didn鈥檛 know what it was but it was very bright and the train then stopped and started all the way to Temple Meads. The stops got longer and longer the closer we got, and it seemed as though the city was on fire. It was incredible - apart from the sky being bright crimson the smoke and the flames were everywhere. We couldn鈥檛 believe it. It seemed as though the whole city was an inferno.
Eventually the train wouldn鈥檛 go any further and it actually backed. It was the first time I鈥檇 ever been in a train that just backed it for what seemed like miles. Eventually the engine ran around the train and took us all the way back to Stroud 鈥� it wasn鈥檛 Stroud, obviously, there was another little branch line that took us into Stroud. We got there in the early hours of the morning and had to knock up our relatives who were very surprised to see us having waved us goodbye many hours before. It was the colour of the sky. It had to be seen to be believed - quite frightening.

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