大象传媒

As an 8 year old living in Monks Road, Exeter the bombing of Lubeck by the RAF did not mean anything to me, However I subsequently learned that as a direct result of this I became a victim of one of the infamous "Baedeker Raids"
Exeter had already been bombed on the nights of the 24th/25th and 25th/26th April,1942. On each occasion my mother, my father being away in the RAF, bundled myself and my sister into the Morrison Table Shelter where we lay petrified. In the morning the fear had flown in the rush to recover shrapnel.
However the night of the 3rd/4th May was very different. As usual as soon as the sirens went we were again bundled into the Morrison. We had just about got in when a bomb fell directly on the house. A gentleman who was billeted on us and was attempting to enter the shelter was killed immediately.
The Morrison Shelter with my mother, my sister and myself on board was blown across the street on to the roof of a house on the opposite side of the road. On regaining conciousness I was aware of voices and called out. I was pulled out the rubble, put on someones shoulder and taken down a ladder to a neighbours house. The ambulance men collected me and took me to hospital
Seven people were killed next door. My mother and myself spent nearly five months in hospital with multiple injuries. My sister escaped unhurt!
Our escape was more remarkable because my mother had removed the lathes which form the floor of the Morrison because of mice. A few days before the raids she had a premonition and replaced them.
Without them the shelter would have taken off leaving us at the mercy of the blast and falling house.

Alan Lock

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