大象传媒

Written by Karen Ullersperger on behalf of her mother Wynn Ullersperger formerly Wright

In September 1939 Wynn had been evacuated. However as there were no air raids after a period of six weeks Wynn came back from Northampton to the East End of London to be with her mother. Her father was often away working in Ireland for long periods of time.

The local air raid warden designated houses in the street to be responsible for a stirrup pump and a bucket of sand in the event of air raids. It started with short raids at first, and as they lived near Hackney Marshes most of the bombs and incendiaries fell on the marshes. The Anderson shelter became a playhouse and it was covered in flowers. The stirrup pump came in very handy as a garden hose. When the night raids started Wynn and her mum continued their weekly visits to the cinema and were roundly told off by the air raid warden as they walked home during a raid.They disliked the public shelters and preferred to take their chances.

During the raids people were told not to go out unnecessarily, but Elizabeth Wright held the stirrup pump and sand bucket, so had to check the neighbouring houses for incendiaries. Several landed in the street, but often they fizzled out as they were poorly made. She would not leave Wynn alone in the house so she made here wear the tin colander to protect her against falling shrapnel when they went out. Bill worked in Ireland for long periods so did not experience the raids, when he came home towards the end of the blitz he was astonished to find the public sheltering in the underground. When he experienced his first raid he dived under the table to the sound of laughter from his daughter who was well used to the bombing.

It was early evening not long before the end of the war in Trehurst Street. Wynn now aged 16 and already working, had just said goodbye to her cousin Dorothy who had been visiting. Wynn had just bought a new tweed coat from the 50-shilling tailor by using some of her clothing coupons and paying the rest out of her hard earned wages (7 shillings 6d per week). She had shown this to Dorothy, and when she left hung her coat on the back of the door intending to put it away later. Wynn was sitting down mending some stockings when all at once the lights went out, soot and dirt flew everywhere and the windows blew in. There was not sound or warning.

Finding a candle Wynn saw her two pet canaries had been killed and the brand new coat was lying in the soot. Bill had been taking a nap and was forced to climb out of the bedroom window as the internal walls of the flat had collapsed between the bedroom and living room the debris of the wall lying on Wynn鈥檚 bed, her childhood doll was lying smashed.

The family in the flat upstairs came out and everyone went into the back garden where they saw the huge flame from the gas main that had been hit in the explosion, a water main was gushing water into the next street. More damage to the street was visible from the light of the gas main. On the corner of the street an old lady and her pet dog were killed just as they returned home from their daily walk.

Aunt Alice came round to take Wynn home, she was covered in soot. Bill and Elizabeth stayed in the bombed out house to protect their remaining possessions. Bizarrely Wynn felt the need to take her alarm clock with her! The copper was lit and a bath taken, the coat was cleaned but was never quite the same. The house was not fit to live in and the family had to temporarily move in with aunt Alice. Wynn was sad to leave her apple tree that she had grown from a pip, and which in 1945 had flowered for the very first time. The family were given a pre-fabricated house Berkshire Road, Hackney Wick and for the very first time had their own bathroom and indoor toilet.

About a week to ten days later another rocket fell into the open ground on Hackney Marshes but did not do any damage. Yet another near miss for the family.

Wynn always told us snippets of life near Hackney Marshes during the war, watching the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and always said everyone just got on with life. I had never realised until writing this story for her, how close, literally yards, she came to being killed by a V2.

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