- Contributed by听
- Pat Oakley
- People in story:听
- Margaret Church, Factory employees
- Location of story:听
- London
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A4331035
- Contributed on:听
- 02 July 2005
THE DAY THE DOCKS WERE BOMBED
In August 1940 I lived with my family in Forest Hill, S.E. London. I had left school and was working in the office of a local factory which was making aircraft parts. I was a trainee learning to use a new invention which was the beginning of a revolution in accountancy. It was a small mechanical machine that could add, subtract, multiply and divide, and was operated by turning a handle. This machine was soon superseded by punch cards, based on the binary system, and this eventually developed into the early computers.
It was normal for office staff to work on Saturdays, and one Saturday morning the bosses came into the office and told all the staff to go straight home immediately. They said we must not dilly dally on the way or stop to do any shopping but get home as quickly as possible. They would not tell us why but we knew it must be something serious so we all got out of the building as quickly as possible
I tried to travel home by train as usual, unaware of the disaster about to unfold. As we approached the docks we were confronted by a horrifying sight. Bombs had flattened buildings and fire was spreading out of control. It was obvious that I could not get home by normal route so with trembling legs I ran over New Cross Hill and eventually arrived home safely ,much to my parents relief. This was just the beginning of frequent air raids and we spent many nights in the Anderson air raid shelter
Margaret Church
This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Crawley on behalf of Margaret Church and has been added to the site with her permission Margaret fully understands the terms and conditions.
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