大象传媒

We were all in our Morrison shelter that night. Mum,Dennis Alan and me.Dad was in the Auxiliary Fire Service and on duty. It was late when the air-raid warning sounded and not many minutes had passed before we heard the German bombers,we knew they were German alright because their engines had a very distictive pulsating drone.The anti-aircraft guns began firing, their sharp echoing bangs grew louder as the aircraft came nearer. Then came the rapid 'thump, thump thump' of a Bofors gun as it opened up in Colyers Lane. We could see the flashes from the guns through the thick blackout curtains in our front room. Soon it sounded as though the whole of Erith was in the middle of a terrifying storm but instead of rain we could hear the 'ping' of shrapnel falling onto the roof tiles. Suddenly there was a great 'whoosh' as if a door had opened letting in a high wind. There was a pungent smell of soot and the room seemed full of dust and it became very chilly. Mum shouted "come on, we've got to go." Somehow we groped and fumbled our way out of the shelter, out of the front room and into the passage, the floors were covered in plaster and broken glass. The front door had been blown in and we staggered along the garden path to the roadway. The flashes from the guns now seemed much brighter and the bangs louder. Search light beams swept the sky seeking out the bombers and over towards the river a flare was descending slowly. There was a man wearing a long black overcoat lying face down amongst broken slates and debri outside our gate. Mum said "come on quickly now," and we carried on across the road to Uncle Mac's and Auntie Edie's house. Stumbling along the side of their house to the back garden we managed to scramble down into their Anderson shelter. Our cousins Olive, Joyce and baby Ronald were huddled with their mum, Uncle Mac was working at Fraser and Chalmers. It was such a relief not being on our own, which somehow made things less frightening. One of us wanted a pee and a little enamel pot appeared the only trouble was it had a hole in the bottom. We seemed to be in that shelter a long long time with the terrible racket continuing. Eventually the 'all-clear' sounded, we could hear a lot of shouting going on outside. It was the Air Raid wardens checking to see that everyone was safe. We heard later that Mr Harvey had been killed and nine other people injured. We clambered out of the shelter and were taken to the Rest Centre in Colyers Lane. I remember one of the ladies saying "we've got a nice tin of chocolate all the way from Canada but we haven't been able to find the tin opener." Everyone was given a drink and we spent what was left of the night lying on mattress's spread out on the floor. Later on that morning Auntie Edie, Olive, Joyce and Ronald went off to stay with Mrs Watts in Heathway. Mum, Alan and Dennis and me went to stay with Auntie Ivy, Uncle Stan, and their children Douglas and Anne.That Friday night 21st/22nd January 1944, 450 German bombers were sentto attack London, and it was the start of what became known as the 'Baby' blitz. Apart from our house and several others in Colyers Lane, Erith Town Hall and the Fire Station was also destroyed. During the same air-raid 13 people were killed when two wards at Bexley Mental Hospital received a direct hit. Air raids continued until March 31st 1944, and many more people in Erith were killed, injured and made homless. Just as we began to feel more optimistic two new weapons were launched the V1 'Doodlebug' and the V2 rockets which were to cause more loss of life and devastation in and around Erith. The age of the missle had arrived but luckily the Barrett family and their new home at 67 Northway, managed to survive the rest of the war. After the war the 'Rest Centre' in Colyers Lane became an Off Licence managed by Mr and Mrs Harrison. Their eldest daughter Joyce married Roy Barrett the youngest son of my Mum and Dad who was born in 1950.

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