大象传媒

As a small boy during the war I lived with my older brother Keith on the outskirts of Leicester.
When the air raids on Coventry and Birmingham were in full swing, our area seemed to be in direct flight path of the German bombers and I remember the noise of the engines and the distant flashes of light as their bombs fell on Coventry.
Leicester did not escape attention either and the Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Factory built on farmland next to Kingsway was one of their targets. Several bombs were released and one fell at the top of Edward Avenue. The next morning a boy called at home and asked my mother if he could remove pieces of shrapnel from the gate post. Several windows had been blown out and houses had cracks in their brickwork on Edward Avenue as well.

I also remember 'Leicester's heaviest raid' where my mother took me to the local air raid shelter in Edward Avenue. My brother who a teenager at this time stayed at home to do his homework and my father arrived home after 10pm complaining that the Germans had bombed his favourite pub - the King's Head on King Street. Not being in a very good mood he then asked where my mother and I were and promptly came over to the shelter and escorted us home for supper.

"This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Keith Ruffles of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Carl Neal and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

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