大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Simon Harris and has been added to the website on behalf of Terence Chedgey with his permission and they fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

Having been evacuated to Oxfordshire with my mother and three sisters for a couple of years I returned with my mother and twin sister to Ashford in 1942. Having been aware of the bombings elsewhere because of distant glows and the droning of aircraft I was about to experience them close up.

My school鈥檚 playing field had been taken over by the army with a rangefinder in the middle and a load of anti aircraft guns around the edges. One day I was on my way to school when the alert came and the guns started firing at the planes above with shrapnel falling on the school roof. When there was an alert all hell broke loose so much school work got done. At home there was little peace either. At night we had to listen for alerts before taking to the shelter and sleep until the all clear came. It all became much worse when the flying bombs started to come over because they were a continuous menace and we had to spend all night in the shelter.

In March 1943 six German bombers came over and bombed Ashford. They were aiming at the railway station but a bomb went through the roof of the Victoria public house before crossing the road to my old primary school where it blew up. Thankfully all the children had already reached the shelter and nobody was hurt.

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