大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Simon Harris and has been added to the website on behalf of Joyce Lewis with her permission and they fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

I was eight when war broke out and living in Dagenham which of course was soon to become a major target for German bombers.

One of my first memories of the war is the excitement of seeing aeroplanes approaching. I remember leaning out of the windows and waving at the planes. They turned out to be German aircraft and they were strafing. Of course my mother rushed into the room and dragged me down from the windows. Soon after this incident the same windows had been taped up to stop them from shattering from bomb blasts. We had an Anderson shelter in the garden which I helped my dad to build and cover. But I hated going in the shelter because of all the bugs and spiders that lived there.

My family soon gave up on the shelter due to the commotion that I caused. Before I was eventually evacuated from Dagenham we had instead taken to sheltering under the stairs.

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