大象传媒

The sun was setting, 鈥淭ime to go鈥�, said mum. We picked up the bags that were standing in the hall. Dad bent down to kiss us all goodbye, 鈥淥ff you go now and be good girls for Mum鈥�.

We walked towards the bus stop and turned around to wave to Dad. He was on air raid duty that night. The big red trolley-bus came to a stop and we scrambled aboard. 鈥淔ares please鈥� called the conductor, as the bus sped along the Whipps Cross road, towards the underground tunnel that Dad insisted we visited every night to insure we slept safely.

Suddenly we heard a drone of a Doodlebug, and then it stopped, that was the danger sign, it meant it was going to land and exploded very near to us. 鈥淕ET DOWN, FOR GOD SAKE GET DOWN!鈥� the conductor shouted. Everyone knew what he meant and threw themselves on the floor to be as far away from the windows as possible. Today we are lucky; the bomb missed the bus and crashed in to the trees in the forest. 鈥淏limey, that was close鈥�, the conductor joked, 鈥淥ur number wasn鈥檛 on that one鈥�, and we continued on our journey to the tunnel.

The steps down into the tunnel were very steep so we held tightly on the metal banister as we went down.

Mum got busy putting the covers on the bunks so Connie and I went to buy hot drinks from the lady in charge of a big iron boiler. Soon we all sat on the bunks eating our supper and then mum tucked us both up and we went to sleep, not hearing the bombs falling during the night.

Morning came, time to return home. We said our goodbyes to our tunnel friends and went out into the daylight. The sight that greeted us was total carnage. The buildings around us were all damaged, some almost flattened. The road was covered in debris, with household belongings strewn in the road. Mum had a very worried look upon her face; she grabbed our hands and said, "Come on hurry up, let鈥檚 get home to your father鈥�. As we got to the corner of our road, mum let out a wail. There were fire engines, police, rescue workers and people milling around. Mum ordered Connie and me to stay where we were and she pushed her way through the crowd. It seemed like ages before she returned to us. When she returned with the good news that Dad was unhurt and the house was still standing we let out a big cheer.

The news was not so good for the people in the middle of the street, several houses had been badly damaged and two were beyond repair and would have to be pulled down. We walked to our house and stood there looking at the damage and mum said 鈥淥h well at least it鈥檚 still standing, if I get hold of bloody Hitler I鈥檒l ask him to put our roof back鈥�!

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