大象传媒

It was the 16th or 18th June 1944. We were in Wimbledon. I was twelve, it was ten days after D-Day and I was in the end of my last year at school. V1s; we hadn't heard about them before. I was finishing breakfast, getting ready for school. One hit our house. My brother and I were taken to Nelson Hospital. I had bits of wood from the staircase embedded in my brain and my brother had lots of glass in his head.

After a week or two, we were moved by a converted bus (into an ambulance) to Botley Park Hospital in Hampshire, I think it was called. We arrived into a long ward and then it was gradually filled with casualties from the front. The soldiers were very nice. A lot of them were badly wounded so they didn't speak much.

We took everything in our stride. You missed out on education. My school, King's College Wimbledon, they took me back but I'd missed a lot.

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Helena Noifeld of 大象传媒 Radio Kent and has been added to the website on behalf of Derrick William Sirman with his permission. He fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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