大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by a CSV Action Desk People鈥檚 War Story gatherer on behalf of William De Smith. The story was added to the site with his full permission. He understands the sites terms and conditions.

I think the following incident took place in 1942 when my family, consisting of two Brothers, a Sister, my parents and my Grandmother were living in East Sheen. During the night the alert sounded and we were proceeded to the kitchen which was at the back of the house. We were there some time, with the sound of anti - aircraft guns firing and the noise of aeroplane engines.

Eventually my Father shepherded us all to a small space under the stairs. There were bombs whining or screaming down. My Father told us that the noise of the boms was only meant to frighten us. My Grandmother said a few prayers out loud. Then there was a tremendous explosion...

There was a small factory a couple of streets away which had been making armaments for the War effort and it had recieved a direct hit. The flames were so high that they were reflected on the back of our house, and we thought at first that It was on fire.

All the windows at ther back were blown in, bits of ceiling fell down and the suction pulled the front door off it's hinges. A warden called out from the street, "Everyone all right in there?"

My Father, who was teaching in Battersea at the time left us with some sparklers to play with when he set off for work the following morning. For several weeks after this event we (apart from my Grandmother) travelled to Gloucester Road - Underground Station to sleep. There were three tiers of bunks fastened to the wall, they were all occupied.

We slept somewhere near the middle of a long line of people, with our heads to the back and feet forward toward the rail. When we returned in the morning, we had to go to bed again and so we didn't go to School.

The factory site remained an eye sore for several years after the war. It used to spring to life on November 5th when many local people used the area to set off their fireworks.

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