大象传媒

In 1943 my family moved to Hackney E8 where my father had become the Stationmaster at Hackney Downs Station. We lived at 9, Bodney Road not far from the station My parents two sisters and I, my elder brother was serving in the Army with the 7nth Queens Own Hussars. I was just 13 years old. The first school I went to there was the Secondary School by Hackney Downs, where most of the pupils had been evacuated to Norfolk to King Edward 7nth Grammer School.
Atthe corner of Bodney Road was the American Ambulance Station, which had been the old fire station. The ambulances had been donated by the American people,and were manned by mostly English girls who had volenteered to do so, and a great girls they were too. They never failed to be there when required whatever the danger.I became frendly with them and some times I was allowed to ride in the ambulances. But never of course when an Alert was on The woman Commanding Officer was a Captain Wainwright,and when they stood down at the end of the War she arranged a party for local friends and the children, and a great party it was too. Soon, I had joined the Scout movement, the [51st Hackney] the Scoutmaster was John Farr, a great chap, who had been invalided out of the Army RAMC. One of the tasks we had to do for the National Service badge was to put up Morrison shelters for the old people in thier homes. These shelters were basicaly large steel tables, made out of robust angle iron with a steel top and heavy steel mesh all round the sides to stop the ingress of debris. The whole thing was bolted together, and was immensly strong. After the Alert had sounded, we would work at an increased pace so that we could also use it if necessary ,and it sometimes was. Thes shelters saved many from death or injury, the main disadvantage being that if the shelter got buried by the building falling on it then they had to be got out soon to avoid suffication. For this reason the location of these shelters should have been kept at the local Wardens Command Post.
I had taken a Scolarship to the Hackney Technical College to take up Engineering.
Our studies being frequently disturbed however, by having to go to take shelter when an Alert was on.
In 1944 came the flying bombs or Doodle bugs as the Americans named them. You knew it was safe while you could here that engine going,the time to look out is when it stopped. These fearfull weapons did immense blast damage over a wide area.
Just up the road from where we lived,facing the Hackney Downs, were several large blocks of five story flats. One morning at about 6am the block on the corner of our road was hit. I went with my 7 year old sister Brenda to see what had happened. Half of this large block of flats had been demolished, and what was left of a fourth floor bedroom was just a ledge with a bed hanging on it , and to cap it all, a woman still in the bed. The Heavy Rescue lads were trying to find a way to get her down before the whole lot came down. Just then came the sound of another Doodlebug approaching and people in the remaining flats ran around thier balconies screaming and in panic, thinking the next one would land on them. And who could blame them,I believe the first one had killed 14 people at least. I told my sister to lay down close to a low wall and laid over her in order to try and give her some protection As it happened, the bomb came down some way off.
In another 'incident['as they were so ineptly called]a Doodlebug landed near to my College and I was on the spot soon after It had hit some houses just up the road from the College killing a number of Polish Soldiers I believe who were training at the College. A man came running towards me with blood streaming from his head, obviously in shock. I pointed him to the Wardens First Aid post across the road. In the diary I kept at the time was written for most days just' Buggs and yet more Buggs.'
The next thing that Her Hitler sent to try us was the V2 rocket. There was absolutly no warning of its coming,and the first thing you knew was when it exploded. One landed in the evening [fortunatly] because it landed on the Elementry School in Dalston Lane near to the Hackney Downs railway station. It was only a few hundred yards from our house in distance, but fortunatly, the railway embankmentin between stopped most of the blast.However, had I been in bed at the time I would not have been so lucky , because the whole of very large window frame had been blown out and landed on the middle of my bed [Lucky Escape]
One weekend we were at the International Scout Camp at Gilwell Park in Essex and close to the Epping Forest. Some time in the early hours of the morning a V2 landed in the forest a short distance away . Trees stopped most of the blast,but much to our anger, some of our tents had got blown over.When we went to investigate in the morning we soon found a large crater,about twenty feet across,and littered with bits of rocket which our Skipper told us not to touch in case of some contamination.
We thought we were going to have a nice quiet weekend in the country away from it all. How wrong could we be? I did indeed live a charmed life in those days.
A Great day to remember,and indeed 'one which lifted our spirits no end was 'D' day 6th of June 1944. When suddenly the sky was with Aircraft, far more than we had seen during the Battle of Britain even.
This went on for hours it seemed, at last the great day we hed all been waiting for had arrived.
It had come at not a moment too soon to end what would been have been the increased bombardment of London by V2 rockets had the allies not moved inland and overun the launching sites. Only a few months more and the devastation would have been tremendous.
It was a very close thing indeed.

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