大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Doreen Bennett on behalf of Arthur George William Cambridge, the author and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was thirteen when the war was declared and at this point education ceased for us. The schools closed and we were billeted in Ashford, Kent. By Christmas I had been in three different homes and my parents decided that I would go back home with them. Up to that time nothing seemed to be happening war wise.

We lived in a terraced house, 134 Glenfarg Road, Catford, South East London. The local Council put an Anderson Air Raid Shelter in our garden and father, George Cambridge, made some bunk beds with timber and sacking to fit inside the shelter, so we thought we were ready if anything did start. When the sirens started we would dash down the garden and dive into the shelter and as the bombing was quite heavy at night we would stay in the shelter all night taking food, drinks, candles and a torch. As we lived on the outskirts, the bombing was mainly on the centre of London so from time to time when it was a little quiet; we would get out of the shelter and look at the red glow from the fires.

On one occasion an unexploded bomb dropped down at the other end of the road and the Army barricaded off the road. This meant a long detour to get to the shops. My Mother, Mabel Cambridge, and I went shopping one day and had to go the long way round and we took our small dog with us. Whilst shopping the sirens sounded but we could not go into any public shelter as dogs were banned from them. We made a quick dash for home. Mother decided that the short way home was the best as the planes could be heard and the anti-aircraft guns started to fire. We got under the barrier. You could hear the odd bit of shrapnel falling on the roof tops. The soldiers who were dealing with the unexploded bomb were standing in the doorway where the bomb was, looking up at the action; they saw us running by and shouted out 鈥淕et undercover. Come in here鈥� So we took cover in the house with the bomb in it. We laughed about it afterwards and Father said 鈥淚鈥檓 glad you chose a safe place!鈥�.

After one night of heavy bombing, when we went back into our house we found that the gas pressure was very low. It would just about light if you turned it full on. We did manage to make a cup of tea but as the gas was so low the only thing that may cook was some bacon and tomatoes, so in the oven they went. We were drinking our tea when at the front door appeared an air raid warden telling us to get out as quick as possible as an unexploded bomb had been found a few houses up the road. Mum and Dad put a few things in a couple of cases and made for the local school, but this was crowded with people like us or who had been bombed out.

So we made our way to the house of Ethel Dillion, my Aunt on Olney Road Walworth. They had no shelter as they only had a very small back yard, so for shelter we went over the road under the arches of the railway. This was used as a car repair garage. There were two decks and these were used by my Dad and Uncle, Frank Dillion, as they needed the rest as they had to go to work. I spent the night sitting on the running board of one of the cars and lent over the mudguard. Dad would call into the local police station and ask if we could return home only to be told that it was not safe to do so.

As my cousin, Gladys Dillon, was getting married to Sam Hawkins in a few days time on the 15 September 1940, Dad took a chance to return home for some clothes. On arrival he found there had not been a bomb in the garden only a large tin. Going indoors he went into the kitchen to find that in the haste to get out nobody had turned the gas oven off and the gas pressure had come back on fully. The small kitchen was like an oven and on the shelves packets of soda had broken open and the soda formed icicles hanging from the shelves. The 15 September 1940 was Battle of Britain day and the day of the wedding. When we got to the church the air raids started and the church doors were closed and locked so we all had to wait and watch the bombers until the 鈥榓ll clear鈥�.

My grandmother Mary Cambridge lived in a ground floor flat of a block of flats in Merron Street, Walworth. Father would pop in and see how she was whenever possible. The local air raid warden asked my father if he could get my grandmother to go into the brick shelter in the quadrangle of the building. She told him that the Germans had killed two of her sons in the Great War and that no German was getting her to give up her bed. A few days later there was a direct hit on the building from a bomb. Grandmother was buried for seven hours but was rescued with only a few scratches and bruises. The warden who was in the shelter was killed by the blast.

On the 2 January 1943 I saw some German planes coming over very low before the sirens had sounded and they dropped some bombs on Sandhurst Road School Catford just a few roads away, killing six teachers and 38 children. My cousin, Joyce Sherwood, who attended that school, was fortunate because she had gone home for lunch. The newly wed couple had moved into a flat opposite the school where the bomb fell and as a result their home was destroyed.

Those people who were killed in the school were buried in Hither Green Cemetery, where there is a memorial site.

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