大象传媒

I was 9 and half years old when the blitz started in September 1940. We had an Anderson shelter in the garden under a fig tree and my main memory is that during one Sunday, at lunchtime, Dad rushed up to the kitchen to collect the vegetables then went back in when it was quiet to get the meat and perhaps the Yorkshire puddings too!

We didn't sleep in our own beds for 7 weeks and during the whole time we never wore our night clothes. We lived near the docks and the sky was bright red from the fires and the pumps used by the fireman were red hot. They found difficulty in getting water from the river.

We were bombed out and used to live in South Norwood near Croydon. Then the Doodlebugs started to come over and Croydon was called 鈥淒oodlebug alley.鈥� We said they had followed us from Bromley-by-Bow!

My school, Coburn Infants, was evacuated to Taunton, but I said I wanted to stay with Mum and Dad, so I spent the whole of the War in the London/Croydon area.

We used to have maps in our living room wall of the various campaigns (inclduing flags) following the Allies progress. In South Norwood we had a Morrison shelter, which was a tight squeeze when all our friends came round during an air raid.

This story is submitted to the People's War Website by Philip Moore on behalf of Shirley Meader, who fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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