大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education鈥檚 reminiscence team on behalf of Irene Skipper and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I had lost my parents in 1935 and lived in London with relatives when the war broke out. The first year wasn鈥檛 too bad, but then we had the bombing. I lived in south east Peckham, and when they bombed the docks we stood in the road and watched all the flames of the docks on fire. We had general bombing all the time, and had shelters which we used to go and sit in when the siren sounded. The bombing went on for a long time. Sometimes I would be coming home from work and it would start, and I鈥檇 throw myself on the ground and lay flat to protect myself. We always had to take our gas masks everywhere.

A friend of mine from school wrote from Abbingdon and asked if I would like to go and stay for a couple of weeks. While I was there we didn鈥檛 have any raids and it was so peaceful compared to London. I ended up staying there for two years, and while I was there I met my husband. He was from Norwich but was stationed there. When he was going to be sent overseas we got married and I stayed in Abbingdon. He went to France and Germany. At the end of the war when he was demobbed we moved to Norwich.

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