大象传媒

When the V1 Doodlebug raids began in 1944 they made walking to school an adventure. If you were nearer home when you heard the siren you could run back home. Then I would be able to sit in a neighbour鈥檚 Anderson shelter, where I and my friend, Josephine, made yards of French knitting with scraps of wool, pins and a cotton reel and a crochet hook. If you were nearer school you had to run for shelter there and sit on your cushion in the corridor for lessons. This was because there were no windows in the corridor, so less risk of cuts from flying glass. Your cushion hung on a hook on your own desk.

If a doodlebug arrived overhead or you could hear one coming and you were still out in the street, you had to lie down quickly on the pavement to minimise the risk of being struck by objects flying in the blast from an explosion. We would count the seconds from when the drone of the engine noise cut out to when an explosion could be heard, to estimate how far away the bomb had fallen.

This story was submitted to the People's War Website by T Bowdrey of CSV Action Desk on behalf of Ann Beams, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site terms and conditions.

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