大象传媒

On the 10th of February 1943 I was aged 5 years old. I was at home with my mother, Mrs Lammas. We lived in a large country house that was situated on a steep hill (Chalk Hill), later named Alexandra Road. Our house faced directly down towards the town of Reading and the station.

I was stood looking out of our sitting room window at our large conker tree when all of a sudden an enemy bomber appeared out of, it seemed, nowhere. I found as the plane was so low I was looking clearly at two German faces, they saw me! It clipped the top of the conker tree and this was thought later that it was because they were flying so low it may have caused a mishit as it was the railway station they were hoping to bomb. I was grabbed by my mother, Mrs Kathleen Lammas, and went flying through the air backwards as she flung me under our table, within two minutes we heard the bomb dropping.

The bomb missed the station but did considerable damage everywhere. They hit the people鈥檚 pantry, damaged the arcade between Friar Street and Broad Street.

The bombs caused many fires to break out and in all there were 192 casualties, 41 were fatal. This was the ninth raid on Reading during the war.

Apart from Civil Defence, the WVS offices were wrecked but without casualties, so they could help.

The Royal Army Pay Corps and the American Military Police also worked for days with help from The Rifle Brigade. The Damage was enormous.

The plane which dropped the bombs, 4 in number also opened fire with its machine guns and was reported by several wardens.

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