大象传媒

I had been evacuated at the beginning of the war when I was 14, and on this date I came home to Camberwell for a break, during which time there was an air raid over London. We went down to the cellar in our house in Camberwell Road, and from there, sat out the air raid from 9pm to 5am. Shortly afterwards I typed an account of this experience, I still have this account which amounts to 12 pages of typing, here are some extracts;

"The warning went at 9 o'clock, well to be exact it was 2 mins to 9 o'clock, so early we guessed that something was to come on. The news came on almost as soon as this had gone. With this started te guns , they went like blazes. One gun was on the railway bridge down Medlar street so one can guess how we shook. Dad went up stairs and called us up to the top landing, there were chandeleer flares being dropped to the back of our house. We came down fairly quick because Fritz usually drops bombs when flares are coming down. Sure enough many bombs were dropped and quite near here, we shook more than ever."

"As we could not actually do anything we lay down on the beds, Dad and Mummy were with their clothes on, Pat was not dressed nor was I but I had my dressing gown on and Dad's on top so I was ready to jump out if necessary. Dad said we had better go to the shelter under Marble Arch Motor Supplies, both Pat and I said that we would not go if we could not take the cat and the dog, but on second thoughts we decided to leave the cat behind."

"Once in the shelter we sat down but we found that all the water had been cut off except in the shelter where we were, so I got Pat to hold the dog, while I ran for buckets of water, the water was very slow because they had cut the pressure down, they wanted the water for the hydrants and the firemen. We filled the buckets and took them up to the top of the stairs and then called for someone to come for them and bring another empty bucket. It was such an awful rush for those times, but no one was moaning or saying about it except they were glad that they were down there. People were scooting with buckets of sand and water. Every time bombs came down the firemen shouted DUCK, and people went down, when they had heard them drop they got up and went on with their jobs."

"This is a list of the people who had any bombs;
Corts - 2 bombs
Wheelers - 4 bombs
Prisons 303 - 1 bomb
Goulds - 1 bomb
Fowlers - 1 bomb
Marble arch - 4 bombs
as well as about 20 which fell in the roadway"

These are just a couple of extracts of a detailed acount which I wrote, and have kept with me.

Sheila

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