大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Maddy Bridge from Swavesey Village College on behalf of Joan Bridge.

When the war was on, the German aircraft were bombing London nearly every night. It was very frightening, especially as many people were killed in the Blitz. As my mother and father owned a public house in a main street in Colchester, my mother, due to her very friendly nature, would let a lot of lady friends stay with us during the raids as they were extremely nervous.

On a certain night there was a big raid going on in London. When we closed the pub at 10:00 pm we had some lady friends stay with us, planning to leave when the all-clear was sounded. The aircraft were going to London in hundreds and we were all very scared as we gathered around the kitchen table. We could hear the planes going over our heads to London. From behind our gas stove a mouse appeared. As you could probably guess, we all screamed and ran outside. My father was on fire duty that night and he was very annoyed to see us standing outside in our back yard with no protection with the planes still going overhead, but, as always, we ladies were more frightened about the mouse.

We never could catch the mouse, and so my mother got a cat. We called it 'Doodles' after the Doodle Bug.

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