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In October of 1941 my I was living in Newcastle, my aunt had moved me there from Dover to escape the threat of bombing. We got a telegram however to say that my grandmother had been wounded by a German bomb attack so we returned home.

I remember we caught the train back and it was just packed with men from the services, there seemed to be men from every field on there, soldiers, sailors, pilots, everything. I was small and there was no room for little old me so I had to sit on a table for the journey. I can just remember the train going through London, and seeing the flames there. It was quite a sight, all the bombed buildings and smoke and fire. I was only little but it must have made quite an impact on all the servicemen who were there; to see our capital in that state.

My grandmother later died from her wounds and the house was demolished, so we moved to another in Dover. I remember one night there when there was another raid, and for some reason, perhaps all the detonations or something, the kitchen light came on in the middle of the night. With the door closed my great aunt just saw the light shining under the door, and began running around screaming that we were on fire! She thought that the Germans had dropped some kind of incendiary bomb and the house was going to be up in flames any second!

Luckily we managed to calm her down after chasing her about for a bit, but I guess it shows just how on edge some people were during that time, when the threat of such things and even worse was very much a possibility.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by James Barton and has been added to the website on behalf of Shirley Lazarus with his/her permission and they fully understand the site’s terms and conditions.

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