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They say that Swanscombe in Kent was the most bombed town in England. This is blamed on a very large girl’s school, which had so many glass windows that the building reflected in the sunlight. This made the German think that it was of great importance.
I lived in a street called Sun Rd. I was ten My grandmother lived four doors down. I had just walking across the road to see her, when I heard a stick of bombs. They landed where I had walked — a lucky escape. I had a game of draughts with my grandmother and then made my way home.
My father worked in a factory nearby. Friends used to sign each other in if one was late. One night, my father’s friend knocked on our shelter door to say he would sign my dad in at work. He went down the street and fell into a newly created bomb crater. He climbed out and went on to work. When my father finally arrived at work himself, this friend was having breakfast. My father then announced that the crater had since filled up with sewage — another lucky escape.
One night the Morning Star pub in our street was bombed. 51 people were killed. The street was strewn with dead bodies. I helped to move these bodies, many in parts, to a bombed out fish shop where they were laid out and identified. I was very shocked and saddened by this task, but felt that I must help as most of the men were away fighting.
Children grew up quickly in the war.

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