大象传媒

I remember being in doors on the second day of the Blitz, the 8th Sept. We saw a big fire down Lodge Road so we went out. A bomb had been dropped on the stables of the railway horses. We saw them bringing the horses across the road to the other side. We went back indoors as there was a lot of gunfire around Primrose Hill. We weren鈥檛 in there half an hour before a bomb came down on the flat opposite and cut them in half.

Another night we were in the shelter at C and As, Oxford Street. My brother worked there so he got us into the shelter as it was dangerous where we lived, next to a power station. John Lewis was alight and we sat in C and As eating chips and watching John Lewis burn. We went to sleep, woke at 1 in the morning and counted 33 bombs coming down. There was a sound like a 100ft canvas being ripped, and a bomb hit C and As destroying it. There was only a dividing wall that kept us away from it. Water poured into the shelter so we had to leave. Me and my dad went to Selfridges to shelter. They were doing an extension at the time and we slept in this part. In the morning you could see our imprints on the concrete which wasn鈥檛 quite dry.

I remember coming home, Church Street was burning and as we turned into Frampton Street I could see our shelter had been hit. I lost a few of my mates down there. There were 3 bombs that time. One hit the shelter, one knocked the pub down, which had only been up 12 months and one hit the pavement. Our war reserve policeman was Lesley Compton, the footballer.

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