- Contributed by听
- wkflib
- People in story:听
- Norman Miller
- Location of story:听
- London
- Article ID:听
- A2772506
- Contributed on:听
- 23 June 2004
I joined the Home Guards and I also joined the fire brigade at the same time. The night I should have been on duty at Mitcham Common, I was also on duty in the fire brigade. I was told that I had to choose which one I wanted to belong to as I could only serve one or the other. So I chose the Fire Brigade. The night that I should have been on duty at the common there was a landmine, which dropped onto the creameries and killed all of the Home Guards on duty that night. This is one of the near misses that I had during the war.
Further misses
In the fire brigade we were in a basement one night and the bomb dropped 3 foot away and hit the wall near where we were sleeping and craters went right around the wall and I never felt a thing. When I went outside the bomb had demolished the building and the wood yard completely.
I also remember seeing the first doodlebug that came over London. I was on the roof of a 5 story building in Camberwell and this buzzing noise was the doodlebug. It went across the New Cross area and exploded. On the news the following day they reported that enemy aircraft had been shot down which later appeared to have been the first doodlebug that I saw. After that they came over in there hundreds.
On one occasion my house had been bombed and I was having a cup of tea at the WVS caravan when a flying bomb came up the road, its engine cut out and it glided along the road and did a complete circle and came back over us again and landed on some houses about 200 yards away and we saw the houses just vanish into thin air.
A story of Romance -
I met Louise as a friend and we got engaged in 1940. Louise also had another boyfriend in France in the Army who later went to Burma. Louise dumped me for the other chap. I got married in 1946 and Louise got married to the other chap in 1947.
I lost my wife about 8 years ago and Louise lost her husband about 16 years ago.
About 7 years ago I met Louse again at my brothers funeral. We re-ignited an old flame and now today we are the best of friends.
Norman Miller June 2004
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