大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War Site for Three Counties Action on behalf of Stephen Foreman, a visitor to the Bedfordshire County Show on 9th July 2005.
It has been added to the site with the author's permission, and he fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was five years old when the war began and we lived in Dagenham, Essex. I remember that the German bombers came over regularly at 6pm, by which time we would be in our shelter, which was brick built and in our garden. I recall cheering on the British when I was watching a dogfight and getting a clip from my father who said we must remember that the German was also somebody's son. My father was an ambulance driver in the Civil Defence.
On one occasion when the RAF son of a friend had to get to King's Cross my father was able to drive him because he had a pass(the use of cars was very restricted because of lack of petrol.) I went with them, and we drove through London where houses and shops were blazing after an air-raid, driving over fire hoses and debris.

Our school was near to the Dagenham works which the Germans were trying to bomb. Once there was a flying bomb, and once a V2 rocket landed in the playing field. Once the school was hit by incendiary bombs, and he had to go to another school. Air-raids sometimes made a good excuse to miss school.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.