大象传媒

(This story has been submitted to the People's War website through the 大象传媒 East Video Nation project on behalf of Marie Randall and has been added to the site with her permission).

Marie Randall was 18 years old when she experienced her first bombing raid over Norwich. A first aider, with the St. John's Ambulance, Marie's training was to prove very useful.

THIS IS MARIE'S STORY IN HER OWN WORDS.

We鈥檇 gone to bed and the sirens went, we got up. My mother went downstairs and I was just following her and I stood at the top of the stairs. The bomb went off at the back of the house, the blast blew me down the stairs straight across onto the wall and then dropped me down. My mother was having hysterics so I grabbed her under the kitchen table - no time to get down the shelter so I gave her a shaking and a little slap over to bring her back to her senses which it did. Then I reached up to the table top to where there was a jug of milk and I found a stocking on the chair at the side and I dipped that in the jug of milk and bathed all the blood off that was pouring down my face from the damage it had done to my forehead. When the all clear went my father who was out fire watching 鈥� so when the all clear went my neighbour came in covered with soot and said can you come in Marie he said my wife鈥檚 cut her head on the top of the shelter as she was going down. Now I was a first aider and everyone thought I was wonderful and I went and it was a really nasty cut. So I followed all my instructions and I got out my scissors and I began to cut her hair off. She wasn鈥檛 having her hair cut off- oh no! So I said 鈥渄o you want me to look after the wound on your head or don鈥檛 you鈥�? 鈥淵es鈥� she said, 鈥渨ell then the first thing to do is cut the hair off so I can get to it - full stop鈥�! We cut her hair off, we sorted it out and did her up.

Now the next bit is a little bit of a blank. The next thing I remember is being inside an army jeep with various other people who had seemed to come under my care going to the first aid centre. We arrived and it was absolutely full, we had to sit in a row and the doctor came along and diagnosed us with what we had wrong and what we should do. I鈥檇 got this group of people including my neighbour who was my mothers best friend and he came along to me and he looked at her cut and he said we needn鈥檛 do anything with that its been attended to and I swelled with pride. Then he looked at me and said this person is suffering from shock wrap her up in a blanket, give her a hot cup of tea and send her home to bed. So that鈥檚 what happened. And the next thing I know I woke up in the morning and my fathers standing at the side of the bed covered in soot where they were clearing up all the mess and I think he鈥檇 been out all night long. That was my first experience of the blitz. It wasn鈥檛 the last one by any means but it was the first one and the one I mostly remember. And incidentally - Liza who her name was - her wound healed perfectly.

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