大象传媒

My name is Joan Westland. I was born on the 1st May 1928. The war was declared when I was 11 years old. I lived in Wallasey, Merseyside. There were 509 air raids and I was in 68 air raids; we did not have an air raid shelter. I was bombed out twice and put out of my home with a time bomb for three weeks.

One of the most terrible air raids happened on the 31st August 1940, the raids continued from then on until November. Some of the raids lasted up to 12 hours. On the 6th of September, Liverpool cathedral sustained blast damage. Some beautiful stain glass windows were destroyed, this was of particular interest to my family as three of my granddads brothers had been stone masons.

For three weeks Merseyside was free from air raids, then on the 20th December the air raid sirens sounded again. At 6.30pm bombs were dropped until 4.00am in the morning. Fires were burning everywhere, the docks were set alight, shops and houses were on fire. Our house was bombed, the roof blew off, windows blew out, furniture was damaged, curtains hung in tatters there was rubble and glass everywhere. The worst experience was the blast of the bomb it was like a surging wing that sucked everything up in it鈥檚 path, objects were flung everywhere and Christmas cards were blown onto the telephone wires.

My dad went out to help the emergency services, there were many casualties, Mrs. O鈥橲ullivan, our neighbour, had glass in both her eyes and Mr. O鈥橲ullivan was screaming with shock. Dad hit him and told him to be a man and look after his wife. Dad had been a sergeant in the First World War.

Our house was adjacent to the hospital. There was a direct hit on the doctor鈥檚 resident, some were killed and many houses slid into the huge craters. There were pianos and furniture strewn everywhere.

The gas main in the crater caught fire, the flames shot several feet in the air. My friend鈥檚 dad worked all night putting the flames out, even though bombs were still dropping and eventually he bought the fire under control. He was a very brave man. All this time casualties were still being taken to hospital, the ambulances were driven by girls the average age was 18.

A street shelter received a direct hit killing over 30 people and injuring many. The air raid wardens were digging through rubble when three and a half days later a baby was found in an old fashion wooden cradle. Her only injury was a broken arm, both her parents were killed. Amongst the rubble a considerable amount of money was found, it could not be established who owned the money so a trust fund was set up for the baby.

I witnessed many more terrible scenes and I also saw the bravery, courage and kindness, and the best in people also the determination of British people not to be defeated.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.