大象传媒

A 1941 AIR RAID

The drone of the aircraft had been invading our ears for some two hours or more. The siren had sounded at 7:15pm and we had been rushed once again to the shelter across the square. At the outbreak of war, the ground floor of one block in the buildings had been turned into air raid shelters. All the glass in the windows had been removed and replaced with wooden boards. Sandbags had been placed in the doorways and double shutters had been put all around and inside these shutters were tons of sand. All this kept out the shrapnel, but could do nothing about the noise of the bombers overhead, the anti-aircraft guns firing and, worst of all, the noise of the bombs falling on our beloved London.

This particular evening, the raid appeared to be more violent than usual. There seemed to be no respite whatsoever as wave after wave of bombers released their deadly cargo across the city. My baby brother and I had been placed in a corner of the shelter cosily wrapped in blankets and an eiderdown. Suddenly, the screaming of bombs was even louder than before and I remember thinking that this one was going to land right on our shelter. It didn鈥檛 of course, but it certainly was not that far away. The lights flickered briefly and then 鈥� darkness!

The air was full of the noise of mothers calling for their offspring and children crying. I had sand in my mouth and nose. I had no idea if my mother and brother were safe and it seemed ages before some men appeared in the shelter with torches and began to check for casualties. Miraculously, there were none and my mother and brother were now reunited with me. My brother was still asleep and unharmed, so she concentrated on clearing my mouth and nose of the sand. The electric lights came back on and I realised that both my brother and myself were at the opposite end of the room to where we had originally been put to bed. My mother informed me that this was not the case, but I learned many years later that we had been blown about ten feet across the room by the blast of the nearby bomb.

The raid that night continued and the 鈥渁ll-clear鈥� did not sound until 6am the following morning. When we emerged from the shelter, we were amazed to find that all four blocks of flats around our small square were still standing. Windows were practically non-existent and the brickwork had the scars left by the pieces of shrapnel that had pounded the walls that long night. The bomb that I thought was destined for us had actually landed within half-a-mile of our shelter. I think had it been any nearer, I would have been suffering from far more than a sandy mouth!

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