大象传媒

I remember seeing the four bombs that hit the Grosvenor Hotel and the County Theatre in Midland Road. I was walking through the gates of Ampthill Road school, I looked up and saw four specks, the bombs falling from the plane. The siren went and we ran to go into the shelters in the school playground.

I went with friends to St.John's Railway Station to find oranges, sweets and chewing gum on the tracks that the American troops had thrown out of the train windows for us kids. They knew that we hadn't got access to these items.

I remember the two planes that collided and crashed into Miller Road. After school we collected spam, sweets, chewing gum and cigarettes that had showered into Bunyan Road from the collision.

I recall the long convoys of army lorries moving slowly along the roads of Bedford. One time my mother received a telegram from my father saying that he would be travelling through Bedford on a lorry in a convoy. We, my mother, brother and I ran along Ampthill Road as we were late to meet him and we saw him under the railway bridge in Elstow Road. He was sat at the back of the lorry and because the lorries were travelling slowly he was able to gather me up in his arms and hold me for a while before placing me back on the road.

The trees along Ampthill Road had a series of three, approximately 6" deep white stripes painted around them. These were to aid motorists during the blackouts at night. We had diagonal strips of sticky tape on our windows to stop them shattering in case of bombing or blast. We had black material roller blinds at the windows of the house. Mother would go outside to check that no light was leaking through the blackout. The ARP Warden, Mr Birtwhistle lived in the next road.

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