大象传媒

One day during the "doodlebug" season, I woke and strangley did not want to go to school. I claimed a headache and although Mum knew I was pretending she played along and let me stay in bed and read comics.
At lunchtime my elder brother Trev, who went to Enfield Grammar School, came home for his lunch and we were sitting in the kitchen when the siren went. Grabbing our lunch we went out to the shelter and finished eating with the door open to let in some light.
After a while we heard the sound of an approaching "doodlebug", which is what we called the V1 flying bombs. We peeked out of the door and saw it flying low above us. The noise was horrendous and then suddenly it stopped and the flying bomb carried on down Beaconsfield Road and then dropped out of sight behind the rooftops. A loud bang followed and a pall of smoke arose at the ned of the road. The all-clear sounded shortly afterwards and my brother headed off to school. As was usual in those days, we went into the street and met other people coming out of their houses all anxious to find out what had happened. Somebody came hurrying up from the location of the smoke cloud and told us that Chesterfield Road infant school had had a direct hit on the school hall. Luckily all the children(except me) were safely in the shelters along the edge of the playground. One teacher, Miss Parnell, was killed because she stayed to look for children in the playground.
Unfortunately, the fire sub-station next to the school was also blown up and we were told that four firemen died.
I didn't go to school for six months after that. My parents allowed our front room to be used as a classroom for some of the older children, until the school was habitable again.

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