大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer on behalf of Mr Huxtable and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Huxtable fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I left school in 1943 and started work as a van boy for Holdstock & Son Bakers and the van driver's name was Ted Sumner.

We delivered bread to Walthamstow including deliveries to the war work factories. If the van was in for repair, we would take the horse and cart. We began work at 8am, filled up the van and started doing the rounds. We always used to stop at a cafe near Wadham Rd for a bacon sandwhich and tea.

One morning in the cafe before doing the rounds, a VI fired a bomb overhead. The cafe owner Frank turned and said "this is it" and disappeared behind the counter. Ted the van driver said "on the floor, this is it lad". The bomb exploded quite near and we all remained on the floor for quite some time deafened and shaken.

Whenever we were doing a round and there was a bomb scare, we could knock at anyone's door and they would let us hide under the stairs or take cover in their garden shelter.

On one occasion when using the horse and cart a VI bomb exploded overhead. We knocked on a neighbour's door and ran for the stairs..the VI exploded and left us shaken and scared. We soon discovered that our horse had bolted off to the next town.

The saddest experience for me was when we arrived at Trevose Road near Chingford to collect our weekly payment. I had always liked this road. The people had always been very kind and had often invited us in for cups of tea. That day however, the whole road had been demolished. Ted Sumner said "there is no need for us to call on this road anymore" and proceded to cross out customer names.There had been 53 casualties in Trevose Road that day.

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