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I was a nine year old boy at the start of the London blitz, living with my mother and older brother in Napier road, East Ham. My father was away in the army.

One particular episode stands out in my memory. My brother and I were spotting for enemy aircraft when we saw a large number of aircraft heading for London. We called out to the neighbours to take cover, then made our way to the Anderson shelter.

Heavy bombing started, everything went quiet for a few seconds, then we were knocked to the floor of the shelter by concussion. We tried to get out of the shelter but the door was blocked, my brother tried to unbolt the rear exit but it was all rusty. We then heard voices outside — soon the door was cleared. As we climbed out an ARP man told us to leave the area as quickly as possible and to stop for nothing. We made out way up the road, as we ran a noise like bees started; we were told later that the noise was that of machine gun bullets.

The cause of the door being blocked was UXB had landed about ten feet away from our shelter. A couple of days later we saw the Bomb Disposal Team, rolling the bomb down the road towards a lorry to be taken aw

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