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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Sue Manning-Jones on behalf of Len Earl and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Earl fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I went with my parents to the church one Sunday evening, 24th November 1940, for 6.30 evening service. Half way through the service sirens went and we had the Home Guard billeted next to the church and they came in and sent everybody to the shelter. Rather amusingly the Minister pronounced the Benediction in the middle of the service, instead of at the end, before went down into the shelters. We were down in the shelters by 7 o’clock until just before midnight. We were on the outskirts of Bristol on a hill. When we came up from the shelters we could see that the whole of Bristol was on fire. I was only ten years old at the time and it has remained a vivid memory. One lady in the congregation hurried home instead of coming into the shelter, as she had left her teenage daughter at home. Sadly, that was the end of her and her daughter.

We had several blitzes after that. My most vivid memory is of Good Friday 1941. The siren went at about 6.30 and we went into the shelter and the all clear sounded within about half-an-hour. Usually whenever we got back into the house we cheered and had a cup of tea but before we had time to boil a kettle it went again — this time we were in the shelter until five or six in the morning. During that blitz half our street was obliterated by a land mine.

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