- Contributed by听
- West Sussex Library Service
- People in story:听
- Joan Martin (nee Crofts)
- Location of story:听
- South London
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A4433131
- Contributed on:听
- 11 July 2005
In 1940, I was seven years old. It was a beautiful sunny day and there were a lot of planes in the sky - small, like toy planes - and my father said "There is all hell going on up there." We found out it was the Battle of Britain!
On another occasion, there was a great red glow in the sky - it was the London Docks on fire.
We slept every night in an Anderson Shelter in the garden. If the siren went off during the day we would run to the shelter then too. One night I was running to the shelter and looked up to see the searchlights had criss-crossed and caught an enemy plane in the centre of the searchlights.
Eventually, our house was so badly bombed that we left London and moved to some relatives in Buckinghamshire. But I have never forgotten those tiny silver planes caught in the sunlight - as a child, I had no idea they were Spitfires or the significance of the Battle of Britain going on over my head.
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