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I was born in the east end. It was bombed a lot over that side, the house I was actually born in was bombed. Luckily we had moved out by that point.
We had a Morrison shelter in the house.
My father was in the home guard and he worked as a setter, he wasn’t in the army he was in the home guards. I can clearly remember the air raid sirens and in particular a neighbour shouting at me because the doodle bugs. Doodle bugs were rockets without pilots. If they stopped above you, you were relieved, as they would glide down. I don’t know what their official name was but that’s what everyone called them.
My husband used to run down to the shelters outside, his granddad had told him to pick this lady up and him and his brother grabbed her arm and she’s running but because they were tall her feet were off the ground! He’s also seen a bus that’s been blown over by a bomb blast. Where I lived both in Stratford where I was born was a dock area. Where we moved to there was a big factory estate at park royal and they were always trying to get that. There was a golf course opposite that had all the searchlights and guns.
On a typical day I would have gone to go to school but would have to miss it because of the air raid sirens. We lived opposite a big factory – Hoovers. They had parties after the war but I was too young to join in. The factory itself was painted in camouflage, after the war it went back to being a white building.

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