大象传媒

I don't remember the exact date of what I believe to be the first daylight raid on Croydon, but that day is indelibly printed on my mind and one I shall never forget.
My father was being called into the army, leaving my mother to cope with three little girls with many shortages and the uncertaintyof war. I was a junior pupil at the Purley County School for girls. For safety reasons the school was closed and we were given large envelopes filled with the work we had to do at home. I tasted freedom! and remember thinking "if this is war, its not so bad". One day my mother, small sister and the baby in the pram were taken to the woods at Old Coulsdon, where we lived and where we played happy in our own world. I remeber the noise of the aircraft as there was something very different, I ran to the edge of the woods to see what was going on, then suddenly it was all confusion. The noise of bombs dropping and gunfire, my mothers frantic voice called me back as she ran deeper into the trees with the pram for cover. Our baby had dropped her doll and was crying, I ran to retrieve it - "leave it! leave it!" cried my mother, but I ran back and got it anyway. Our fighter plane probably from Kenley Aerodrome, had by now driven the enemy planes out over open country and were engaged in dog-fights immediately over our heads. We were made to lay down and my mother laid on top of my small sister protecting her with her body. The noise was incredible, the whine of the tracer bullets making making the leaves dance all around us as we lay on the floor of the wood and where in order to detatch myself from my bear I tried hard to concentrate on the creepy crawlies I was meeting face to face for the first time. Quite suddenly it was over and we made our way home, picking up bits of aircraft and engines - so this was war!!

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