大象传媒

I was a young married woman of twenty one years old, with a six month old baby when war broke out. I lived in Leyton London, and my memories of the war will never leave me. Nobody who lived through six years of the war in London can ever forget those times. I moved seven years ago to the Midlands, but I am a proud Londoner and always will be?

The horror began soon after war was declared. My young husband was called up to join the Royal Sussex Regiment, and so for six years, myself and child were subject to air raids, warnings every night鈥攂lack outs, and were bombed out of our home three times. My husband was stationed in Dover at first, and when he had leave, it was spent in our Anderson shelter or my parents鈥� cellar. My three brothers were 鈥渨ardens鈥�, and one was an ambulance driver. Night after night bombs would reign down; we never expected to see the next day. The days were not as bad鈥攚e sometimes went to buy food, but were often caught in a raid. I have watched dog fights in the sky and the black would fall around us as we dived into a street shelter. I took my child to see a friend one day, and she did not answer the door. A neighbour same out and told me my friend had been killed the night before in the street shelter. My uncle was a bus driver. One night in a bad raid, the passengers all went down a shelter, but he would always stay in the bus. However they begged him to go with them, as it was so heavy, he did and none of them came up. They were all killed! People in our street were in their cellar, a bomb dropped near and they were all gassed. That was the life we lived day after day. We got used to never seeing our beds! On one forty eight hour leave, we had thirteen air raid warnings. My husband was glad to get back to barracks for a bit of peace. Many times I have come home to find my windows and curtains lying across my bed. One occasion, I got the flat all nice for my husband鈥檚 leave, and when he arrived, we could not open one door. The flat was full of debris and part of a shell had come through the roof and landed on the table. The room was flooded, it had been raining鈥攁nother leave spent in the shelter. Happy Days! One night I watched a V2 floating across the sky and you never knew when they would cut out until you heard a crump and knew some other poor soul had got it! My husband lost part of his hearing and all his teeth were removed by 鈥淢istaken Names鈥�. He was taken out of the Royal Sussex Regt and trained for the military Police, became a staff sgt, and had to spend an extra year in Egypt, releasing prisoners. So my boy, now seven years old, saw his dad in 1946, a year after it was all over. I will never forget VE Day, it was wonderful. My younger son was born in 1947.
This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 war site by Deb Roach of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Sophia Dowling and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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