大象传媒

This story was submitted to the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by Wymondham Learning Centre on behalf of Madge and Harold Bloomfield and has been added to the site with their permission. The authors fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Bomb One:
In 1942 we lived in a railway house by the side of the railway line near The Maltings in Great Ryburgh. We kept chickens in our garden and they lived in a very smart Bolton & Paul chicken hut that had four wheels.
One night a bomb dropped on the railway line (it was meant for the Maltings) and we rushed out to see what damage had been done. To our horror all that was left of the Bolton & Paul chicken hut was the four wheels and the chickens had lost all their feathers. Fortunately the chickens survived and grew new feathers.

Bomb Two: August 1942.
A very good friend of mine (the policeman鈥檚 wife) was ill in bed and the doctor prescribed pearl barley water for her, which I went to collect from my mother-in-law. As a result I was late home to bath my baby Alan, nine months old, who was usually in bed by six p.m. I undressed my baby to bath him and he was lying on his mat when my husband, Harold, said, 鈥淭hat sounds like a German plane flying very low 鈥� quickly get in the corner of the kitchen.鈥�
I wrapped Alan in a blanket and rushed to the side of the kitchen and Harold bent down over us. Suddenly there was a huge blast and the windows of our house were blown out and doors blown off into the road. There was broken china and glass everywhere 鈥� just chaos. A policeman arrived and told me to take Alan to my mother-in-law who lived nearby. When I returned home the firemen were there with an appliance as there was a fire in the roof. The firemen told us to salvage everything we could from upstairs. I remember emptying my wardrobe (including my Sunday best clothes) and wrapping them all in a sheet and throwing them out of the window. I vowed never to keep clothes for Sunday best again. My eyes then fell upon Alan鈥檚 cot which was full of tiles and bricks and I realised that if it had not been for me
getting the pearl barley for my friend, thus being late in putting Alan to bed, he would have been killed.
We stayed in our home, which had cardboard for the windows and the doors hung in a makeshift way. I was upset that the Chapel was repaired before my house since I felt that people should have been put first.
After that, when the siren sounded I was very nervous about staying in the house and always put my baby in the pram and went to my mother-in-law鈥檚. I felt unhappy living in our house and when I heard the siren I felt that the German planes were coming to get me.

Bomb Three:
Eventually an incendiary bomb was dropped on the Maltings. The firemen were called and put water on the building. This resulted in the malt swelling and in places the walls of the Maltings were pushed out. Later the Maltings were repaired.

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