大象传媒

Yet another night of bombing, it has been
a very heavy bombardment, with German planes coming over one after the other. Auntie was counting them as they came ever closer,the fifth one was right at the end of our road, the next one would have been ours. It seemed that had been the last bomb, as we were spared for another night.

I lived with my mother,my grandmother,and my Auntie Peggy, we shared a house with another family, who lived on the ground floor. My gran and I shared a bedroom at the top of the house, there were no bathroom facilities, a tin bath had to be brought up from tnhe back yard downstairs. It was the same in a lot of homes at the time, the youngest member was always the last. The bath was filled by the coal fire which was in the kitchen, you could not touch the bath on one side, as it was burning hot.
We had a cellar below the house, which doubled up as a shelter,one day of bombing sent us all down there, my family were all so frightened, they didnt realise somebody was missing, mum had left me in my pram out in the back yard, she brought me back just as the German planes were flying over us.
Our home was situated right along side of the river Thames, on the opposite side was a power station, which made our area a prime target for bombing. Auntie was dating one or two local boys at the time, she used to take the most enormous risks, she often came home is the middle of an air raid, she never worried about the danger she was in. My gran used to stand at the window and watch for her, I think my gran aged about twenty years during the war.
Auntie was, at one time going out with a Canadian officer, she told me years later that he had taught me a few words. It was while she was going out with Frank, who was later to become my uncle, my Gran invited him to tea with us, mum put me in one of my best frocks, hoping that I would behave myself. Well, everything went according to plan, until a plane flew over very low, it frightened us all, and made me swear, apparently it wad one of the worst words I could ever have said. Mum said that she had wished that she could disappear. My future uncle thought it was hilarious, and roared with laughter.

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