大象传媒

WW2 Recollections

A Birthday Treat

I lived in the Regent鈥檚 Park area where my grandparents had lived since the First World War, my father died when I was young and my older brother was in the Royal navy serving as an ADSIC operator. My mother and I lived with my grandparents, and as she had to work all day they cared me for.
As a special treat my mother took me out for my birthday, it would have been in mid January 1941. I had just had my 13th birthday, and was looking forward to the outing.
The blitz was at its height, but we were getting used to the nightly arrival of the German bombers, who had been pounding London.
This special outing was for dinner at Lyons Tottenham Court Corner House, which was a very popular venue for special occasions. If I remember rightly the maximum that one could spend on a meal at a restaurant at that time was 4/7d, but that was enough to have a good time. One of the items on the menu was gull鈥檚 egg, which were very small, as real chicken鈥檚 eggs were very short. I think we were rationed to one egg a month at that time. I cannot remember the exact meal, but about half way through it, there was an announcement that there was an air raid taking place, it did not stop the diners, as it was like an 鈥渁mber鈥� warning, but things did gradually get very much worse and we had to either go down to the shelter or evacuate the restaurant.
We decided to leave, as Tottenham Court Road tube station was only just a few steps away on the corner of Oxford Street, but it was closed, due to the number of people that had gone there for shelter. As we were deciding the next course of action the raids increased. Looking down Oxford Street we could see incendiary bombs exploding all along the middle of the road, so we took cover in the entrance to Etam鈥檚 ladies underwear store, which we close by. Looking back it was one of the worst places to shelter, as the entrance had large plate glass windows right through the foyer, which could have caused us much more injury that the incendiary bombs, luckily there were no high explosives at that time.
At the next lull, we decided that we would try to get to Goodge Street tube station where we may catch a train to Camden Town, so we started walking up Tottenham Court Road, it was still quite dark, but the sky was lightening as we progressed. At Goodge Street we were met with the same story, so proceeded on towards Warren Street and further to Mornington Crescent stations with the same result. By that time we were certain that we would have to walk all the way home. I am not certain of the total mileage, but it took us a fairly long time. As we carried on, I think my mother was getting worried, but to me, it was an exciting experience.
As we were walking up Park Street (now Parkway) the sky was getting brighter and brighter, but not light but a red glow which illuminated the whole area, it was so bright we could see the German bombers, who had complete control over the sky in London, flying above us (we believe that it was the docks and the East End that were the target that night)
There was sporadic anti-aircraft fire, which didn鈥檛 shoot down many enemy planes but did give up a sense of giving something back. The two naval guns on the top of Primrose Hill, were always a comfort, with their double boom-boom, but I doubt if they ever hit anything

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