大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Dominic Penny of Link into Learning and by Anne Fordham on behalf of Eric Fordham. It has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 Terms and Conditions.

My name is Eric Fordham and I was 10 years old when the worst day of the Blitz happened to me, it was sometime at Christmas and the New Year. I was living with my parents, two sisters and a brother, the rest of my brothers were serving in the Army.

It was during a bad raid, we lived in a flat near to a power station which incidentally isn鈥檛 far from Greenwich Park which nowadays the Marathon race is started from. A bomb dropped, bouncing off the power station, came across the road and demolished my best friends house killing all the family of four, a Mum, Dad, sister and my friend, the destruction was horrific.

We were sent to my Aunts in Brockley, South East London only to find out that a mine on a parachute came down which went through a nearby shop and had got caught leaving it swinging. So we were then taken from my Aunts by bus to a Church in Peyps Hill, Brockley which was then set alight by incendiary bombs. Once again we were taken by another bus to a school in New Cross. You鈥檝e guessed it, this was then bombed, so we were taken to a school in Deptford. Then thankfully the air raid finished and we all went back to our home.

Although I stayed in London all through the war and went through many air raids, this particular night will remain with me for ever.

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