大象传媒

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I was about three years old, maybe four. With the war rations we got meat only every 6 to 8 weeks. It was the first good joint of meat we鈥檇 had for a long time. We were just getting ready to take it out of the oven, when the sirens went.

As far as I remember we had a purpose built shelter; there were lots of steps to go down into it. We always took a blanket and something to drink, because we never knew how long we鈥檇 be down there. Often someone would start a sing-song to get our spirits up if we were stuck there a long time. There were a lot of women and children. Some men were left behind, because there health wasn鈥檛 good enough for them to go into active service. We had a home guard that had monthly meetings, where they prepared for a possible invasion. They didn鈥檛 have any weapons but it was more people keeping their spirits up and planning. They were ready with their brooms against any possible invaders! In reality they wouldn鈥檛 have been able to do much but everyone was prepared to play their part.

The war didn鈥檛 really frighten me at the time because I didn鈥檛 understand what was happening. I use to stand on the step and call to my mother, 鈥淭here are things coming down鈥� - I didn鈥檛 call them bombs. My mum would tell me off because I should be indoors as the bombs were dangerous. However I didn鈥檛 really comprehend that at the time. I remember seeing bombs falling, they were very quiet until they started to fall and then they let of a whistling sound. Then there would be a big blast wherever they fell. If they fell on anything, be a house or something else, a fire would start and the place would be incinerated. Several bombs fell round about where I lived. We lived in an old Georgian house; my family lived on the ground floor. Two other families lived in the floors above us. We had a little garden at the back and several times we had bombs fall down there. The blast from them blew out some of the walls. We were all in the shelter at the time but when we came back we鈥檇 find walls had collapsed! We were very lucky, going to the shelter saved all our lives.

When we got the all clear, which was a different sound, we came back to the house and this time we found the oven had gone! A bomb had fallen outside in the garden. So the meat and the oven had blown up. Part of the oven door was found on the roof of Sadler鈥檚 Wells, which was about a mile and a half from my home. My mum and her friends laughed 鈥� it was all you could do!

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