大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War web site by Ron Steer, of 大象传媒 South East Today, on behalf of myself, therefore my permission to add it to the site is automatic. I, Ronald William Steer, fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

A Frightened Little Boy

I was born soon after the war started, in October 1939. I therefore am too young to remember any of the events leading up to the war, or to be one of the youngsters that would explore the ruins left by bombing raids (I have beard others talk of such things). My family lived in Mill Hill, on London鈥檚 very edge and a few yards walk would take us into the 鈥榞reen belt鈥�. At the bottom of my road the main line to the Midlands and Northeast ran past as it made its way through Scratch Woods and then into the Elstree tunnel. In the woods there were a number of railway sidings in which was placed an anti aircraft battery.
My Father was called up sometime in 1940, so leaving my Mother and me alone in our one bedroom maisonette. When I was put to bed, my Mother would turn the light out in the bedroom but leave the door ajar and the light on in the hall; I could thereby see the glow from the hall and not be left frightened by total darkness produced by the blackout curtaining. At the time I rember I must have been about three years of age.
If there was an air raid when I had gone to bed the guns would open fire with a very loud sharp bang sound that frightened me so that I would cry out for my Mother. She would come and stand in the doorway and say quietly to me, 鈥滻t鈥檚 all right Ronnie.鈥� She may have said more but those are the words I remember. With her presence the loud, sharp banging of the guns was muffled in my ears and I felt at ease. Such was a mother鈥檚 power to give security to her small child.
The experience however, stayed with me in a dramatic way until my late twenties. Whenever I lived through any form of physical or emotional trauma, as life returned to normal and quietened down, I would hear those muffled guns again inside my head.

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