大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Dianne Burtrand of Chelmsford Library on behalf of R.Lock and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When I was seven years old I lived in a bungalow in White Ash Green. Next to it stood a pile of sand for the roads which also made a very good sandpit. Once an American missed the corner of the road and drove straight over the sand!
Our bungalow had an air raid shelter in the bedroom. My Mother, Dorothy Lock, would always reassure us by saying that the only time a bomb would drop on us would be if it had her name on it.
At nearby Gosfield airfield, lorries delivered bombs collected from Halstead Station and gliders were stationed waiting to go to Arnhem. As boys we used to climb into the gliders to pinch elastic for our catapults until we were chased off!
One night a string of bombs dropped from a bomber heading for nearby Gosfield airfield, killing a dog and blowing off the roof, windows and doors of our bungalow.
George Felton the Night Watchman came to see if we were alright. He had a flashlight and was walking around when he saw a glint which turned out to be water at the bottom of a sixty five foot well. We used the water from this well for drinking and the cover had been blown off. It was lucky he hadn鈥檛 fallen down it. My sister took me along the road to George鈥檚 house and our family was to stay there for the next six to seven months. His house had an upstairs and I was frightened of the stairs.
When clearing up began in the garden of our bungalow a piece of casing with the letters D and L was found. These were my Mother鈥檚 initials so the bomb did have her name on it! Our windows were re-glazed with second hand glass so when you looked through them you often saw two of things!
I still live in George鈥檚 house and In the garden is the village seat. It was thrown over the hedge so often that George decided to leave it there!

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.