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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Joanne Burgess on behalf of Tim Warham and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

It was Friday, 6th July 1940 and it was a stormy day. It was five o clock and we were having our tea when the buzzers went, just after they finished we heard a bomb dropping and then a loud clap of thunder. My Father said ‘you had better go across to the shelter, it looks bad’.

Everybody was in a panic running about the street, when a little boy cried out ‘there’s something on fire up in the sky’. All eyes gazed up to the sky. I thought I wish Old Hitler was on fire. It was a barrage balloon which had caught fire and soon a lot more caught fire. The Nazi could not resist dropping the rest of his load and he was soon caught by our brave lads. Then the All Clear went and I thought the more you come to bomb us the more aeroplanes and men you will lose, the raid was only forgotten when the next raid happened.

The next big raid was in May 1941 and it happened on a Wednesday night at half past eight. I was painting and the sirens sounded. We went into the shelter where a few of the old people were talking and the young babies were crying. We heard a loud bang and then a sound of buildings and glass falling. Someone said ‘he nearly got us that time, he’s sure to have killed someone’. He had just finished speaking when someone shouted ‘will some of the people help put the fires out?’ I thought to myself I wander where that one dropped? All was quiet for a time. I went out and I saw some great fires in the street next to us and I knew he must have done a great deal of damage. I thanked heaven I did not live in that Street.

I went back into the shelter and all was calm for a while. Then we heard a plane dive bombing and we heard a whistling bomb and then my brother came in and told my Mother that our house was on fire and two or three incendiary bombs had dropped in the pantry and gone right through into the coal house and the coal will soon be on fire. My Mother went to help my brother because my Father and all the other men were away. I looked after the baby and I was thinking and wondering what was going on outside. My Mother came back and said that the fires were out.

However the gunfire and bombs continued and about four o clock in the morning the All Clear sounded and we all trooped out and that was the end of one awful night. The next raid was the following night, when the sirens blew and we went into the shelter. We were all fed up with Hitler.

A whistling bomb dropped close by and there was the sound of glass falling. Somebody said ‘your shops gone west, Mrs Gorman and yours Mrs Oxley. All the windows have come out’. But we did not care as long as we were safe. All the ceiling was down and soot had come down the chimney and all the food was inedible. We were all hungry and all the washing was dirty and a warden said ‘go down to bourne chapel’. So, ended another of Hitler’s terrible nights.

Another night, when all was quiet, Hitler decided to pay us another of his unwelcome visits, and the ‘bean street folks’ were unlucky as he dropped a landmine at the bottom of the street. I thought I wish I could do something to him the rogue. The other raids are not much I went into the shelter and fell asleep and did not hear anything.

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