大象传媒

Bombing raids on Merseyside were quite regular through out the war. the first raid that I heard I was walking into town on Saturday evening when I heard a noise like the old fashioned squeal of railway axles wheels. But this was followed by very loud explosions. and I realised that there was a bombing raid. On this night the famous Argyle theatre was virtually destroyed and the cinema a few hundred yards away was badly damaged. When rescuers were able to enter the cinema they found many people still in there seats but dead. Months later, raids begain to take place regularly on the nights when convoys of ships were entering or leaving the port of Liverpool. And on one occasion bombs were dropped on the full 11 mile length of the docks and warehouses along the Mersey coast. Most of the warehouses contained large stocks of cotton paper etc and were ablaze for the full length. 5 of the German planes were set on fire by anti aircraft guns. But none of the air crews escaped. On one night my mother was in hospital and my brother a sergant in the Irish guards and I were alone in the house. I heard a flapping sound a raid was taking place and said what is that noise? My brother replied it's a bomb coming down with a parachute, "get under the table" I said "where are you going" he replied "UNDER YOU".

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