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The bombing of our area seemed to creep up on us. Aircraft would just seem to get louder and louder as they increased their bombing runs, this of course was at night. What really got us down would be lone aircraft flying over keeping the siren from being sounded for all clear. We would lay in bed or the shelter listening to the engines of the aircraft and the sound of their engines which would be out of sync — a very annoying sound. We would lay there just wishing they would go away.

Some of the worst things about the bombing were the different noises. One of the worst was the sound of the aerial torpedoes. These made a screaming noise as they came down which was done to frighten the people — and it did. There were always different explosions, shells, bombs all made different noises as they went off.

We came out of our shelter after a lull in the bombing. My mum was going out of the house to go to the toilet. While she was out I went and looked to see if I could see anything and all I could see was a very red sky all around. This we were to find out was the docks burning and inner London. During these bombing raids my mother and sister always seemed to be screaming. My sister was six years old at the time.

I was going to school one day and knew that there had been land mines or parachutes dropped down either Brettienham Road or Pennent Terrace and so I went down to look. It wasn’t the sight of so many houses destroyed but looking up into the top of a tree and looking at a baby’s pram up there that I remember. I remember wondering whether there was a baby in it at the time.

We had a dog and her name was Peggy. During the bombing because we were so tired after being up for so many nights and also we would be down the shelter during the days as well. We would sleep through the siren. The first thing you would hear would be explosions — either guns or bombs. My mum and my sister would wake up screaming and Peggy would be the first down the shelter. I must tell you that the shelter after being rocked by so many explosions was by now under about 2 to 3 inches of water and so I was very cold and damp down there

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