大象传媒

In 1940 arrangements were well in hand to evacuate schoolchildren to safer areas of the country. We were given a form to take home which asked parents if they wished their children to be evacuated to Canada for the duration of hostilities. After due discussion at home my parents decided that my brother and I would not be evacuated: we would see it all through at home.
There were seven children from our school who went, two from my class (Henry and Bruce). All lost their lives when The City of Benares was sunk by a U boat 200 miles out in the Atlantic. A total of 77 children perished. A few days later our house at Wembley was bombed, 29th September 1940 and my Mother was killed. Next door all 5 were killed.
Later in 1942 I started a paper round and had the first pick of shrapnel every morning. I used to see the RAF bombers coming back to Hendon after all-night raids, some dropping flares (to indicate injured on board) and some badly shot up. They were quite low.
When the flying bombs (V1s)started I used to see them flying very low and could accurately assess by the noise of the engine when they were going to run out of fuel and crash. Some I could see had chalk messages written on the sides, flying very low towards Harrow on the Hill and Kenton. Only twice did I lay down in the street when engines stopped although I saw and heard dozens. They had 850kg of explosive in the nose,and 2419 of them reached London.
The V2 rockets were dangerous for no warning could be given. We used to hear a double bang as they went over but it was not until years after the war that I found out this was the sound of a plane or missile through the sound barrier.
These V1s and V2s continued to arrive until the troops over-ran the launching sites after D Day. The final rocket V2 fell in Orpington, Kent on 27th March 1945, killing a lady resident.
The most amazing sights were in 1944 after the D Day landings. As dawn broke many hundreds of American bombers: Flying Fortress, Constellation, Hudson, Lockeed Liberator, filled the sky. They were lit from underneath by the rising sun. The noise of these heavily laden bombers was memorable. At the same time the RAF were limping home from night raids.
In 1942 I went to East Lane School, Wembley.One night in a heavy air raid a 'Molotov Bread Basket' of incendiary bombs just missed the school but peppered the adjacent school sports field. The Headmaster, Mr Harry L. Willis, LRAM, lined up the pupils across the sports field, with staff, and our instructions were to raise our hand (as we progressed across the field) if we saw a bomb hole. A hole (about two inches diameter) which was burnt indicated an exploded bomb and a 'clean' hole meant an unexploded incendiary bomb. A lot were counted and noted. Health and Safety hadn't been invented then! Before the sports field was cut by the tractor-hauled mower there had to be a careful inspection because jagged shrapnel, if not spotted, would wreck the mower blades.

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