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On September the 7th 1940 my Father took me in the afternoon to White hart Lane to watch an Arsenal football match against Spurs and during the match the air raid sirens went off but no notice was taken because we鈥檇 had many false alarms that day although some planes were seen overhead.
After the match we took a train to Hackney Downs station and upon alighting the station we were greeted by ambulances and Fire engines and Police cars going towards the London docks from where smoke was coming from.
When we arrived home in Bow we were greeted by my
Mother who was extremely worried about us and it had turned out to be the start of the Blitz that afternoon and the docks were heavily bombed and set alight.
After a short time towards evening the sirens went off again and we all went downstairs to the ground floor I then heard a bomb whistling down and the house collapsed on top of us.
I laid conscious for several hours with the lady from downstairs screaming with pain and trying to move which gave me considerable pain.
I then heard digging and then felt some air and a hand touched me and was then subsequently dug out and taken to Mile end Hospital which also got bombed while I was there and got moved to a corridor away from the window and I then discovered my Father was also in this hospital.
The next day I left there and made my way to my Aunts house in bow only to find that had been bombed. I then went to my Grandmothers house which was close by and found some of my relations. Shortly afterwards my Uncle arrived and cryed upon seeing me as he had just returned from the morgues and no trace of us in any of the hospitals. My Father subsequently came home and set about trying to trace my Mother and discovered that she had not been dug out until the next day and was dead and had been buried unidentified in a mass grave as there was an air raid shelter outside my house full of people which had received a direct hit.
The people who dug me out told me I would get my revenge.
I did subsequently joined the RAF as soon as I was old enough.

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