大象传媒

When the Battle of Britain ended, the German attacks on Southern England changed from mainly daylight raids to mostly night bombing.
In late October our house was damaged by blast from a bomb which landed about 300 yards further up our road. My father had to stay because of his work at Woolwich Arsenal so, my mother took me and my twin brother to stay with relatives in her home town of Horwich near Bolton in Lancashire. (Now the site of the Reebuck Stadium home of Bolton Wanderers.) I have very few memories of that journey except that I sat next to a soldier who had the word "Czech" on his shoulder flashes. I often wonder what happened to him.

Our stay in Horwich was not very satisfactory. Dad was back home and Mum was worried about him all the time. Horwich was on the Lufwaffe route to bomb Liverpool and our relatives had their own set of concerns. At school, my brother and I refused to go into the type of air raid shelter being built at that time in that place because we had seen what happened to them and the people inside when bombs landed near. As Christmas approached, we decided that we would all go back to Bexleyheath and take our chances with the Blitz. (My first memory of a family decision because the alternative was for Mum to return alone leaving us two boys as sort of evacuees.)

We took a local train into Bolton where we had to change stations, I remember, for London trains. When the express for London arrived it was packed with people. We stuggled on with our luggage and stood for some time before the Guard came to my mother and took us to a compartment where he had found us seats. (I think someone had actually given up those seats because my Mum was travelling with two youg boys.) Needless to say, the train was running very late and, not doing very much running! We were stopped ouside Crewe for over two hours. There was no in-train communication in those days. Such information we got came via the Guard who was constantly struggling along the crowded corridors trying to keep passengers up-to-date with what was happening. The Guard came to us again just as we were leaving Crewe and told Mum that a restaurant car had been put on the train and took us down to get some food. It was by now about two thirty p.m. When we got there, we found that all the travellers with children were being served first. So. the Guard wasn't just singling us out. We had tomato soup, I remember, and stew with potatos and jam roll. I was so hungry, we had had a very early start that morning, that it all tasted like nectar.

When we arrived in London at after eight p.m. we still had to cross Central London to catch a Southern Railway train to Bexleyheath. The sirens had gone for a raid long before we had arrived in Euston. The mainline train had crept into London without lights for several hours. All the passengers were very grateful to have got to Euston because many trains just stopped running during an air raid. We went to the Underground station and were told that our best bet was to go to Bank station and walk across London Bridge to London Bridge station because no trains were crossing the Thames either underneath or on the surface. So, that is what we did. I, now, am amazed at how my mother coped with that whole journey. Two small boys, baggage, hunger, travel difficulties, walking across London Bridge in the middle of a full-scale Luftwaffe blitz, (we could hear shrapnel from the anti-aircraft guns dropping into the river and on the bridge,) and she never once hesitated to press on to get us home.

At London Bridge station we were whisked by porters, yes porters still working in the middle of an air raid, on to a train for Bexleyheath. The journey was very very slow, constantly stopping for long periods but, we were used to this because that had been happening all day. We arrived home at well past midnight having spent over eighteen hours travelling. Were we glad to be back home.

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