大象传媒

The may blitz of Liverpool and Merseyside, was the one I remember really well. We were living in a three storey house, in Well Lane in Rockferry. My Dad was on fire watch and he came home to see if we were ok? We were all in the cellar sleeping, which had been reinforced. Dad said a parachutist was coming down right on top of our house, and the fire fighters were heading towards us. As it so happened it wasn鈥檛 a parachutist but a landmine attached to a parachute! The mine landed halfway up Well Lane, and demolished houses on each side of our house. We lost two aunties and uncles, and three cousins, as we all lived in the same street. We were trapped in the cellar, as the walls had collapsed. We had to wait be rescued, and in the end we managed to get out through the coal house.

We got a shock when we got out, and realised that the whole of our street was demolished. We were all taken to the local police station which wasn鈥檛 far away. After that we were taken on to the hospital, where we were treated for shock. All the hospital wards had loads of stretchers with injured people on them, so we were taken back to the police station, where we spent the night. The following day we went to the local school which had been made into accommodation for all the homeless people. But my Mother did not want to stay there, so my Dad went to visit his family and they offered us a room to stay in, in their house in Bebbington. We walked from Rockferry to Bebbington, with a few clothes and bedding. All of us had to share the one room.

As I was thirteen at the time, it all seemed very exciting to me; sleeping in air raid shelters in the park. Unknown to me, Dad was trying to find out Auntie Annie and his nephew, who were buried in the rubble and had been missing for five days. On the sixth day a man said that he could hear shouting, so we went to the police station in Well Lane, and the police started a search where the shouting had been heard. They found Auntie Annie, who had been trapped under the stairs heading down to the cellar. She still had our cousin on her knee, with her hands in the air trying to stop anymore debris falling on them-the baby was only two years old. When she had been rescued she asked only for a glass of water for her baby as he had been crying. Unfortunately the baby died.

Auntie Annie was in hospital for twelve months following the blitz. She even had a visit from the Queen, who gave her a blanket for her bravery. She ended up working for the Liverpool pools as a supervisor. So from the dramatic five days she spent trapped in the cellar, she went on to have a really good job.

'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of Joyce Keating and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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