大象传媒

This story has been written to the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Celia Bean on behalf of Phylis Lyons. The story has been added to the site with her permission, and Phylis Lyons fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

On the bus garage at Milehouse there was a double decker bus and it was on its side. There was a landmine dropped in the cemetery just behind the bus garage. It was lifted up by the blast and lifted on top of the Milehouse garages They would take buses out of the garages and in Swilly Road and park them around the streets to stop them all being bombed.

The first bombs which were dropped in Plymouth was on a Saturday afternoon and it was in Swilly Road, now North Prospect Road. It was just before the school on the opposite side. We used to go to the airraid shelter at 9pm. Everynight the sirens would go, we wouldn鈥檛 leave till 6 am next morning. When we did come out all Plymouth was on fire. The Germas were dropping flares so they could see where they were bombing. Our gardens were picked up by the blast and lifted onto the roof of the house.

Derry鈥檚 Clock in the centre of Plymouth, behind the Theatre Royal, my father-in-law liked a drink in the evening and one noght when he went out for a drink, bombs were being dropped. So he opened the door to the clock and stayed inside until the bombs stopped. It saved his life. They used to have smoke-screen lorries going around town when bombs were being dropped to stop them seeing where they were bombing.

We walked to the moors on some nights to escape the bombs. We slept there mostly, in the summer. We carried suitcases with blankets, food rations and then trundled home the next day.

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