大象传媒

This story was submitted to the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by Wymondham Learning Centre on behalf of the author who fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

I was only five years old when war began and so I cannot remember much about that period. I lived in South Norwood on the outskirts of London with my mother.

I recall going into the Anderson shelter in the garden when bombing began. However, we hated going there because it was so dark and there were lots of spiders. Instead when the air-raid warning started, we would shelter in the dining room under the table, which was big and heavy. One day a large bomb exploded nearby and all the glass in our windows was blown out. We were unharmed under our table. However, when we emerged, we realised that only four houses in our street had been left standing. For us that was the worst night of the war.

We would visit my old aunt who lived in Upper Norwood. She only had one eye and the blackout was a difficult time for her. She kept bumping into objects in the house. She lived on the ground floor of a tall house and all the people who lived in the other flats would crowd together in the basement during a raid.

I can remember playing in the garden and seeing a plane flying overhead. We all thought that it was one of ours, but it wasn鈥檛. It was a German plane.

For me, the best memory of the war was the dried egg. I thought that it was lovely!

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