大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Roy Ashton and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."
I have a specific memory of the second night of the Sheffield bombing.

I was about 11 years old and it was a tradition for our family to go out for Sunday tea, to my parents friends in Rotherham. Their house looked over Sheffield and we watched the whole of the bombing.

It was early evening when the sirens went. The buses stopped so we had to stay at the friend鈥檚 house. The bombs started in the early evening. It was dark. The house looked over the valley and we stood in the bay window and watched the whole thing.

Before that night, the war had felt like an adventure. But after that night, I realised it was bloody awful and happening to real people.

We had to walk home (4 miles) and I can still remember the smell of burning.

My father鈥檚 family came from Oughtibridge and the following week we went over to see them, to see how they were. We went on our bikes and we rode through Sheffield. Seeing it at close quarters was a realisation. Luckily, the family were OK.

I can remember swimming in a bomb crater on the River Don, made after the bombing attempt on the Stockbridge works. And I can also remember sitting in the air raid shelter doing school homework, with water around my ankles.

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