大象传媒

I was about sixteen during the Blitz. I worked as a coal man, selling coal from a horse drawn cart. I remember the first day of the blitz. I had sold out of coal, and had returned to put the horse away at the stables in Greenwich. The bombs started on the Saturday afternoon. We could hear them coming nearer and decided we ought to go to the local shelter. We got there and discovered it had no roof, so felt it would be safer back in the yard. I couldn鈥檛 get home as the roads were filled with fire engines, and the trams were full. I ended up staying the night at the bosses, and going home next morning. I got a lift with the cat meat seller. My mum was doing her nut with worry!

It was possibly a year or two later that I was leaving the Surrey Docks and was slowly walking home with the horse when a plane suddenly appeared overhead. I could hear the bombs coming and pushed two old ladies into the nearby shelter. The bombs landed about a hundred feet away. I looked out. The horse was gone. It was standing on top of a pile of rubble. It had one small mark on its back.

Another time when I went home, there was a rope across the road. I was about to slip under it when a Policeman stopped me and told me that everyone in the road was gone. I searched all the local schools and rest centres until I got to New Cross where my brother lived. That鈥檚 where I found them. We stayed there for a long time.

One other thing I remember is seeing an airman coming down. His parachute hadn鈥檛 opened properly. I don鈥檛 know what nationality he was. I swear I could hear him screaming.

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