大象传媒

Born in 1933, my family lived in Geddling Street, Bermondsey. My father was in the Royal Artillery in India and mother worked in munitions as the head cook in the canteen. When she came home she spent the nights fire watching in the street. We were bombed out in Bermondsey and moved to flats near the docks, but spent most of the time living in shelters because of the continual bombing. We then moved to Hammond Road in Enfield, North London.

Later in the war at the time of the V2s my mum and I were at a friends house, when she decided we would leave early to return home. This was unusual and I protested. When it came to bedtime, mum decided we would sleep downstairs. That night instead of banking the fire up, to keep it in, as usual, she raked it out.

During that night my mother heard a V2 coming over and threw herself across me before it landed. It came down in the street next to ours demolishing six houses completely and damaging many more. The blast came straight through our house, damaging doors and windows. We realised water was coming in through the ceiling and thought a pipe must have burst upstairs. We started to look for buckets only then realising that the blast had taken the whole roof off - it was the heavy rain that was coming in!

I have often wondered whether my mother had a premontion that night - who knows?

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