大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Mike Garofalo from Westree Learning Centre and has been added to the website on behalf of Jackie Town with her permission and they fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

In 1941 I was travelling in my father鈥檚 car which was a black Austin 10 with my mother and father and we were off to visit my Grandparents who lived in Terrace Rd, Sittingbourne. It was a lovely summer鈥檚 day and I was looking forward to lunch and poking around in my Grandfathers shed as he was a shipwright and had lots of interesting things including a penny farthing.

We had just arrived at my Grandparents house when the siren had just gone off, it was late! At the same time I heard a plane flying over, my father grabbed me and pulled me into my Grandparents house and pushed me under a very large well made table. I heard the explosion which I think was a 1000lb bomb and felt the house shake and the windows blow in, there was lots of glass on the floor, as a youngster I did not really feel afraid but more excited. After the explosion we instinctively went out to help. I can remember that there was a lot of damage with a lot of houses flattened in rubble or just badly damaged.
To get round to the street we had to go around another street and that is where we met this man who was outside his car very shaken who had been travelling down the street. He was driving a black Austin 7 and he said I was coming down the road when the bomb exploded blowing my car into the air and onto the next street. The car was a bit bent and battered and through a miracle he was ok.
Luckily because it was during a working day most people were out at work and no-one was killed.

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