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Posted on the web-site 18/11/05

This story has been submitted on behalf of the author by a People's War volunteer story gatherer. The author has been made aware of the site's House Rules.

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As a child (12 years) I lived in west London — I was evacuated to South Devon (North of Plymouth) with my sister — but my parents missed us and we were called back to London. I was relieved because being a west London boy I was bullied in school in South Devon.

I remember the first air raid warning. My father brought us down to the kitchen and we sat on deck chairs. Then my father realised that having the family in the kitchen wasn’t the safest place in case we were bombed. So he dug a trench in the garden, but that soon got filled with water. Then he took a bench in the garage and filled its sides with coke to protect it from shock. So my sister and I slept under that and came into the house through the kitchen in the morning and went to school.

We had high explosives and oil bombs near our place in a factory. One afternoon there was an air raid so my mother, sister and I hid in a cupboard under the staircase.

My father was in the home guard (older people’s guard). He was a London taxi driver. His job was to get all the higher ups in Westminster out of London.

That’s how we saw the blitz through.

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