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Below is a copy of a letter which my mother wrote when she was a 14 year old girl in 1941. It describes the events of the night of the 2nd of January 1941, a night when Cardiff suffered severe damage from a German bombing raid. The house she lived in was directly opposite Llandaff Cathedral.

The letter was found by her friend, Sheela, and returned to my mother during the early 1990's.

The letter has been faithfully re-typed so that it includes the errors which are in the original letter.

7, The Green,
Llandaff,
Cardiff,
29th January 1941.

Dear Sheela,

Thank you very much for your letter, I鈥檓 sorry I have not answered it before, but what with school and a messy house I have not really found the time.
Before I tell you about the blitz I must thank you for sending your magazine to us. I think your story is very clever, so does Mum and Dad. I have not forgotten that you want them back, so I鈥檒l post them sometime this week.
We were just having our tea when the blitz began, we were very late as my cousin had come up from Port Talbot that afternoon, to help Mum when the General came.
The warning sounded at quarter to seven, and Dad went straight out into the garden to bring in the washing, as our neighbour is very windy. All of a sudden he called us out and all over town were flames of fire, that put the wind up me, and something seemed to tell me, that we were in for it.
So dad changed into his H.G. uniform as there was to be a lecture. He then went down to the club, but as soon as he opened the door he came rushing back. 鈥淭here鈥檚 an incendiary in the front garden鈥� he said, and rushed through for a spade. While he was doing that 2 Home Guard men rushed through our house to put out incendiaries that were dropping in the gardens.
Dad spent the first half hour putting out incendiary bombs, while we sat in the kitchen. All of a sudden he rushed in and said 鈥淯nder the stairs quickly, there鈥檚 heavy stuff dropping,鈥� so under we ran. Me with the kitten under my arm.
Our neighbours came in with us because they were so frightened. Not long after there was a dreadful crash and we thought the back of the house had collapsed.
Ten minutes later the front of the house went. The front door fell in on Mr Peglan and hurt his chest. Ooh, it was dreadful all dust went into our mouths we really thought our end had come. That was the land mine that dropped on the Cathedral, and the first crash was another mine that dropped on St. Michael鈥檚 College, by the Black Lion. After that we went down the cellar.
The all clear sounded at 2. o鈥檆lock. Then there were two more warnings, the last all clear sounded at half past six. We were perished all night, all we鈥檇 had was a few coats which we kept under the stairs.
As soon as it was light I raced out to see the damage. Not a window left in our house, in some rooms the whole frames came out, ceilings down, there鈥檚 not one at all in the front room. The front door and three other doors were blown down although the doors and windows we left open. A lot of furniture was damaged, but only 4 plates of our dinner service was broken. Tell your mother that all the leather chairs have great tears in them.
The Cathedal is in an awful mess, and Mr White, the verger, the man who showed us around the Chapter House, was taken to hospital, and the Dean was blown out of the Cathedral. Tombstones were found half a mile away, and lots of bones. No-one was killed.
The centre of Llandaff was very lucky, only a few places damaged, and they were burnt out by oil bombs. Grangetown had it the worst, and hundreds were killed. A landmine dropped on De burgh Street and 50 were killed there including some in Neville Street.
A land mine dropped on the top of the Insole Estate, and heaps of houses were razed to the ground. It didn鈥檛 go off till two days later. Gran had to be evacuated to Lansdowne Road School.
Altogether thirty land mines dropped around Cardiff, three in Llandaff. So the one that you had in Chester is nothing to ours.
Our house had six feet of rubble in every room and passage, and it was cold. A few days later we had a heavy fall of snow, then rain followed and lasted four days. The rain poured in through the roof and through every ceiling.
Your Uncle Percy came to see us last Saturday, on his way back from seeing your grandmother.
Well I must bring my long letter to a close.
Please give my love to all,
with love from Margaret
XXXXXX

P.S. I hope you won鈥檛 have a blitz, I don鈥檛 think I could go through another.

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