大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Plymouth Library Services on behalf of Gwendoline Mary Hooper. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the website.

During the war I was the manageress of W.H. Smiths in St Ives, Cornwall. Previously, I had worked for Smiths in Plymouth, but we lost that shop during the Plymouth Blitz.

In St Ives one day during 1942, I was working in a corrugated iron shed in the garden behind the shop, marking up magazines for the next day's delivery. The air raid siren went off, and I immediately heard aircraft. I ran down the steps and in through the back of the shop and said "Please don't panic" (I sounded like Corporal Jones in Dad's Army).

Two enemy planes flew over the town. They dropped two bombs; one fell on the gas works where one man was injured. I don't think that the other bomb did any damage.

The planes went on to machine gun Porthminster Beach, and then flew back over the town doing the same before disappearing out over the sea. We heard the rattle above our heads, and our librarian said "I must go to Ma", before dashing out and down the street. When I turned around I found some customers and staff crouched under the display tables!

After the All Clear, we put the kettle on and had a cup of tea all round. I then went back to the shed to continue my work. In the shed, I looked up and saw a bullet hole in the roof. I investgated, and found the bullet, just where I had been sitting before the raid!

I feel God was watching over me that day, and still does.

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