大象传媒

When I was 8 years old in September 1940 my family鈥檚 home was bombed in Lewisham London (Hither Green Lane). Nobody was injured but later in the day my mother was worried because my eldest brother who was 19 陆 had not come home from his place of work, Surrey Commercial Docks by the Thames. From Sunday to Wednesday my mother had no news of my brother no matter how she searched but on Wednesday afternoon she went to the mortuary in Bermondsey and his body had been identified by his friends. He had come off a ship and sheltered in a timber shed from the bombing raids but a bomb hit the shed, penetrated through to the underground, taking my brother and other people with him. When she returned home the house had been damaged by further bombing.

My father had a horse and cart. The previous week he had taken some people down to a hop farm in Kent to escape the bombing and he returned on the Wednesday. He came home to find the house badly damaged and was then informed that my brother had been killed. So my mother and father decided to go back to the hop farm with 2 carts carrying 10 people, furniture and clothing. We got as far as Swanley the Bull Inn and my mother met the publican who was a friend of hers and managed to get a lorry driver who would take us to Goudhurst where the hop farm was.

We located the bailiff of Finchcocks Farm at 2am in the morning. He left his bed and directed us to 2 hop huts and we stayed there until October.

After a few days my mother, father, brother and sister went up to London to bury my brother on Monday 16 September 1940. I was left with my grandma at the hop farm and while I was queuing up at the baker鈥檚 van, German planes came over dropping bombs and we ran to the slit trenches. There was a large old lady next to me in the trench and all she kept saying was 鈥渋t鈥檚 invasion day鈥�, which really frightened me as an 8 year old! Later that day, Sidney and Wally, 2 of my brothers, told me to come with them as a plane had kilndown near to the churchyard. We hurried to the site, getting there before servicemen. We picked a few pieces of the crashed plane as souvenirs and saw a dead crew member inside.

In October my mum managed to get a house in Tunbridge Wells. 2 of my brothers had been evacuated to Leicestershire. The rest of us stayed at Tunbridge Wells for the time being. We moved back to London in 1942. In August 1944 we got bombed out by a doodle bug (VI). My sister, her daughter, my mother and I were trapped for approximately 30 minutes by a wall collapsing on our shelter. Luckily we weren鈥檛 hurt. I can remember walking around other buildings to get to the front of the house and there waiting was the Salvation Army with tea, food and cigarettes! They were to me the most misrepresented people in the war 鈥� doing so much good for people in distress.

I was evacuated with my sister and her baby to Eccles, Lancashire in August 1944. We stayed approximately 10 weeks, sleeping and eating in 1 room with a total of 8 people. We returned to London in late October and moved into a house in New Cross, 96 Lewisham Way. During November a rocket V2 dropped in nearby Shardeloes Road damaging the rear of our house, taking windows, frames and roof of a basement conservatory. During my wartime at home, we had all that the Germans could throw at us 鈥� bombs, VI, V2 and landmine.

On 25th November 1944 whilst I was playing a rocket went off in the direction of my house which was a mile and half away. I ran towards my house crying all the way but on nearing I saw it was beyond quite some way. It was the rocket that hit New Cross, Woolworths and Coop causing the biggest fatality by enemy action in England. I then went to the scene and saw a man being led from New Cross Town Hall which was opposite. He appeared to have no hair, hardly any flowing blood, but had been scalped. He was walking aided by 2 rescue workers.

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