大象传媒

I was 15 when my sister and I got back to England in the Spring of 1940 so I had to leave school and start work. I loved school and didn't want to leave. I got a job in a factory, Zambrene Ltd., that made raincoats for the military. I was there for over 3 years - under an essential work order as a machinist - I received a certificate to mark this service.

When the bombing started, young as I was, I was appointed to go to the home of any worker who did not turn up for work. I had to walk to where they lived, picking my way over the rubble of the bombed buildings, to find out if they had survived the bombings. I went to the Office to discover whether they had been found, some lived but others did not make it. Especially in the area where the "Salmon & Ball" public house was destroyed, roads and roads of houses were totally destroyed. On one occassion a bomb went down the air-shaft of the Underground, the result was horrifying.

When I was 16 I had to take on extra work in addition to working in the factory full time. In 1941 I did Anti-Gas Training, the training involved having an awareness of gas bombs and the warnings that would have to be given. The completion of the course gave me the necessary knowledge of anti-gas measures for personal measures and also to be able to act as a member of the public air raid precautions service. I had to be on duty several nights a week; I had to work in the City of London as well as in my local district of Shoreditch. Fortunately, we never had any gas attacks, though everybody had to carry their gas masks at all times. Not many people knew about us so I called us the "UNKNOWN WARRIORS".

My father was one of the Chief Wardens for the City of London. He had access to the shelter under the Sun Life Building -next to the Bank of England on Threadneedle Street - which was used as a luxury air-raid shelter.

One night the block of flats we lived in was bombed. Half of the building was destroyed; the other half whilst still standing had its doors and windows blown out. Half the staircase was destroyed straight down the middle from top to bottom - to get to our 3rd floor flat we had to climb uo the remaining half of the staircase.

I saw my father looking at a destroyed block of flats opposite to where we lived, most of the inhabitants had been taken to the shelter on a very bad night of bombing. Unfortunately a bomb blew up the shelter which housed many, many families. On the roof of this block flats there was a mattress which worried my father, as he was certain that there was someone in the mattress. The Police and the Fire Department investigated and found a body wrapped in the mattress - the body and the mattress had been thrown up about 5 stories by the force of the bomb blast.

A bomb exploded near to Bill's house, whilst Bill was asleep in bed. Bill could sleep through anything so didn't wake up. When his mother went to wake him she told him NOT to get out of bed. Bill asked why, when everyday she had to pester him to get up she was now telling him to stay in bed. She told Bill that he had pieces of his door and window all over his bed and that if he was not careful he would cut himself to bits.

Bill was in a reserved occupation, he was a trained coppersmith and worked on radar, some of the time in Portsmouth during the time of severe air-raids there.

We had a tandem, one day when we were out for a country ride we had a very frightening experience. Bill had exceptionally good hearing and whilst we were cycling down a hill in Finchley, Bill yelled at me to jump off the bike and get into the ditch. A V2 bomb was over our heads, the V2 was bigger and more frightening than the V1, they were silent until they started to fall. After the explosion when we looked back, fifty yards behind us was one of the largest craters we had seen.

We were shocked and felt very woozy. There was a restaurant next to where we had jumped off the tandem, we decided to go in to try and get a drink. The place was completely empty - we didn't know why - and though we could have helped ourselves we didn't, we just left and went home.

More stories from Beryl can be found at:

* A8577967 "Evacuation" (From London to Londonderry)

* A8629392 "The End of the War" (Tea at the Waldorf) (Includes a photograph of Bill and Beryl on their tandem.)

Story: This story has been submitted to the People's War Site by Muriel Palmer (volunteer) Age Concern Shropshire Telford & Wrekin on behalf of BD BERRY (author) and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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