大象传媒

During the war in Tolworth,Surrey,boys of my age,about12, collected souvenirs-shrapnel,incendiary bombs, anything we thought was enemy stuff that had appeared in air raids.
It was early June-Derby Day 1944 my stepmother and I were listening to the commentary of the race-the only race my Aunt as we called her ever bet on - (6 pence each way)- in our living room squatting on our Morrison indoor air raid shelter,when a neighbour shouted some kind of warning. (He by now was quite an expert at sussing out when a flying bomb was likely to land nearby and gave us a loud verbal warning having had about 2 to 3 weeks experience !). I was sent out to see what it was all about but some sixth sense told me to get under cover and I was inside the shelter before my Aunt! We didn't hear any noise or explosion but when I saw the ceiling coming down I shouted "It's snowing - I'm off outside!"
I didn't realise at the time that our house was badly damaged by a V1.
Anyway as I rushed out of the house I saw this massive chunk of metal (about 2/3 of the bommb body)in our back garden so I dashed off down the street to find my mates and bring them back to my house to see what was obviously the biggest souvenir that any of us ever got.
On our return however a crowd of ARP wardens, police and other official types had gathered round my souvenir ! As it was at the beginning of the flying bomb era (about 3 weeks) my souvenir was taken away,presumeably for the powers-that-be to check it out. (In 1949 when I joined the R.A.F. as an apprentice, there was a fuller version of a V1 in our workshops so I could see what had got us.)
My Aunt and I had escaped injury from the bomb but my younger sister who had been upstairs in her bedroom at the time - came downstairs with a hugh splinter of glass stuck in her leg - she proudly became a wartime casualty !
On the 13th July 1944 my sister and I were evacuated to Dewsbury in Yorkshire where later on 2 stray V1's came over, one landing somewhere in Yorkshire the other in or near Oldham, Lancashire. We couldn't escape them even there!

Subsequent to the above story I visited our local library in St.Neots, Cambs to find out the actual date of the 1944 Derby Day and they found the following from http//www.co.uk/dna/ww2/A3326870. This refers to the above incident. In addition to the above my address at the time was 28 Tankerton Road running next to and parallel with Tolworth Park Road where the V1 landed. It actually ricocheted off the rear roof of No 52 Tankerton Road before impacting in Tolworth Park Road. Due to gap between a block of flats and a bungalow opposite our address the blast came through and blew out the side wall of our house leaving a gap of about 12 to 18 inches between the front wall and side of my bedroom!. Other info re casualties I understood at the time that there were 11 people killed and about 250 injured in the incident. Some friends of ours were buried in their Anderson air raid shelter for a couple of days before being rescued unhurt ! 6 houses ( 5 then a house left intact plus its other next door were completely raised to the ground and a further 5 houses on the opposite side were also completely demolished, 11 in total.

See diagram below

A
______________XXXXX_H_X________________

Tolworth Park Road
________________XXXXX__________________

Block of flats gap bungalow
________________________________________

Tankerton Road
________________________________________

28 52

X's = Houses completely demolished
H= House left apparently intact
A = friend's Anderson air raid shelter
Pt. of impact approx. middle X of top row
28 = my old address
52 = where V1 first hit

Layout of V1 Incident Derby Day 1944

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