- Contributed by听
- cambsaction
- People in story:听
- Leslie Chennells
- Location of story:听
- Hemel Hempstead area
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A5184209
- Contributed on:听
- 18 August 2005
[This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Radio Cambridgeshire on behalf of Leslie Chennells and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Chennells fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.]
Father was killed just a half-mile from home. He had had a break-down of some sort before the war and couldn鈥檛 join up. He became an ARP but was hit by a bomb and killed.
Mother had to go to work so our grandma brought us up instead 鈥 in King鈥檚 Langley. I was born in October 1939 and this was the autumn of 1944. We had relatives at Woolwich Arsenal. Our cousin used to come and stay to get a break from all the bombing. Her name was Bonny. We went out black-berry picking 鈥 she took her basket and we went to local farmers鈥 fields. The siren went off 鈥 probably for doodle bugs. Bonny was used to running to an air raid shelter. 鈥淲here will we go,鈥 she said, because there weren鈥檛 any buildings near us. 鈥淒on鈥檛 be silly, I said.鈥 鈥淲ho鈥檚 going to bomb us?鈥
I was nearly 5. When I was at the nursery school, if the siren went off we just used to crawl under the tables 鈥 there was no where else.
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