大象传媒

Told to Joan Venus-Evans by Ms June Maltby of Grimsby.
I lived with my Mum and little sister at 74, Kingsway in Cleethorpes during the war. My stepfather was on war time duty in the navy so it was just the three of us. The house we lived in is one of the oldest on the sea front at Cleethorpes and is still standing.
When there was an air raid we would normally go into our shelter until the 'all clear' but one night things were different. My Mum was ironing when the siren sounded and as my little sister and I were upstairs asleep she had to come and wake us. I would have been about 7 at the time and my sister 3. It had been raining heavily and our shelter was flooded so Mum took us into the cupboard under the stairs. We could hear the big guns at the end of North Sea Lane firing at the enemy aircraft. My sister thought it was funny and kept shouting 'bang, bang, bang.' Suddenly, we heard a whistling like the sound of a bomb falling overhead, then the silence that usually followed and an almighty explosion. I also thought I heard glass shattering in our house but my Mum told me not to be silly.
When we finally heard the 'all clear' and left the cupboard, my Mum was furious with the sight that greeted us. The vibration of the explosion had knocked her ironing board over into the fireplace and soot had fallen down the chimney all over her newly washed and pressed laundry. As everything had to be washed by hand and soap and wash powder were almost nonexistent, it seemed like the end of the world to my mother.
We were soon to find out that the explosion wasn't a bomb after all but the crashing of an enemy aircraft on the beach opposite the winter gardens. I was proved right about the shattering glass too as the explosion caused by the igniting of the planes fuel tanks had blown out the windows of all the houses on the sea front apart from number 73's because they had shutters.
The next day men came and replaced all the windows. Unfortunately, when they got to ours they'd run out of clear glass and we had to have frosted which meant we couldn't wave to the two Miss Crowthers at number 75 as they sat sewing by their window in the afternoon.
As part of the celebrations at the end of the war a mock doodle bug was made and burnt on the beach at the site of the crashed plane.

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