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During the period when enemy aircraft were over London bombing each night, a good night's sleep was impossible. My aunt, who lived in the country near Slough, invited us down for a long weekend just to get away from the nerve wrecking air raids.
When we arrived, my father found out that two unexploded bombs had been found in the village and were being attended to by the army’s bomb disposal squad. This information was kept from my mother, we standing in front of notices that said ‘Unexploded Bombs’ when we were out walking.
Information was circulated that the bombs would be detonated late Sunday afternoon, suitably sandbagged to prevent damage to surrounding property.
It was whilst we seated at the table for the evening meal that we were treated to a very loud bang and the jangling of the grandfather clock’s chimes. We were able to pass this off with my mother as being experiments.
This same weekend saw the largest of air raids on Central London, causing large fires and extensive damage. We could see the fires some sixty or seventy miles away and were thankful that we were not any closer.

NEAR MISS
Our house had been damaged to such an extent that we were unable to stay there, so Aunt in the next town offered us accommodation until our house had been repaired.
Her place had both Anderson and Morrison shelters, more than enough for the two families in the event of raids.
This was the time that we were also being bombarded by the dreaded V2 rockets, besides the V1 Doodlebugs. V2’s came unannounced so most people just went to bed at night and prayed that they would be there the next morning.
Summer time was upon us and on this particular evening the warning had been sounded and we were all in the garden sunning ourselves. The houses here were terraced in one long row, gardens back to back. Suddenly, the noise of a V1 brought our attention to the noisy monster flying along the line of the houses to the left. It went on for someway before stopping and then there was an explosion, this being out of our sight. Next, another V1 came down the right hand line of houses and went on past us out of sight and sound. We relaxed, but not for long as another came flying towards us straight down the middle. It nearly reached us before the engine stopped and it twisted over and started a dive. All six of us were trying to get into the small entrance of the Anderson shelter to get protection from the oncoming threat. Fortunately, it had twisted off to one side and missed us but landed two roads away on the fire station. The engines were out at the time so no one was injured.
Two weeks after we arrived at my Aunt’s, a V2 rocket landed in the next road during the night. We were suddenly woken to find ourselves covered with glass and ceiling plaster. Having escaped from one damaged house, we were back where we started and having to put up with another fine mess.

Ian Dellow

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