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This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Katie Holyoak, for Three Counties Action, on behalf of Reg Williams, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

When the war started I was 10 and it finished when I was 16. we were in Palmers Green — Woodgreen was on the edge of the evacuation area — so we didn’t get evacuated. We caught a certain amount of bombers.

The shelters at schools were dank and dark. I can remember such things as fishing in the local park with doodle bugs going over — you said to yourself ‘don’t stop, don’t stop.’

We had a Morrison shelter inside — a steel structure with a great steel plate on top and we all slept under that. They were big enough for four or five people to sleep in.

The doodlebugs were called V1s and the rockets that were called V2s came towards the end of the war and you couldn’t tell they were coming. A rocket land near us and people were killed. We got used to bombs, when the rocket came down, there’d be a huge explosion and you’d hear it come down after.

Landmines used to come down by parachutes and explode near the ground. A torpedo went right through the ventilation shaft at Boundsgreen Underground Station, and landed on the line and killed people.

Towards the end of the war seeing vast quantities of bombers going over to Germany was quite a sight.

I remember seeing dogfights in the air during the Battle of Britain, leaning out of the window. When the All Clear sounded, daredevil spitfire pilots flew very low over houses, waggling their wings.

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