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I was born into an ordinary, happy London family on 2/11/1926 in Hackney. Living with my parents and sister Kathleen - Dad supplied the income whilst Mum ran the home and the discipline.

At the outbreak of war my sister and I were evacuated - she to Northampton - me to Newmarket and then Fakenham. Due to a stray bomb being dropped there, unlike London at that time, my parents had both of us returned home.

Following the London Blitz in September 1940 we obtained the use of a house in Dorking, where we had friends, and all moved there. My sister and I went to the local Dorking County School and my father commuted to work in town.

In 1942 I left school and became a junior clerk for a cable manufacturer for the government; W T Henley’s. Part of our employment was compulsory fire watching duty at night to protect the unoccupied premises. Our equipment was buckets of sand and a shovel on a long pole, to scoop up and dispose of incendiary bombs.

The upside of night duty was a tea allowance of 2/6, a worthwhile sum to a junior. They were exciting times for us single lads. As we went to our post on the roof we had a good view over the North Downs and could see the severity of the action by the glow in the sky over London.

On the night of 24th February 1944 I was on duty with our Manager when the sirens went. We took our station on the roof from where we climbed a ladder to the ridge where a wooden shelter was situated. We were now on the apex of a four storey building in nothing more than a ‘garden shed’!

Anti-aircraft fire is banging overhead, suddenly I see green and red lights descending from the sky and coming straight to at me in a twisting motion. Then I realised it must be an aircraft. Fortunately, for me, I was wrong in my estimate of distance as it crashed at Westcott, a village about a mile west of Dorking, where it finished up very neatly between the houses, thankfully causing no casualties. I went to view the wrecked the next day and was amazed at the houses’ occupants escape.

That was the night I realised what fear was.

This story was added to the People’s War site by Kairen Kemp on behalf of Clifford Worth who fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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