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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by CSV/´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Nottingham on behalf of Gladys Emerson with her permission. The Author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

During the War I used to cycle 16 miles a day to work at the Vicker Armstrong Aircraft Factory where the Wellington Bombers were made in Weighbridge, Surrey. I was in the canteen at about 11 o’clock, my friend had gone back to work were we used to clock-in in the Machine Shop, all of a sudden we heard loud explosions.

The building shuddered; we were being bombed. People rushed to the exit door I hid under a table to protect myself. There’d been no Air Raid warning, which would have given us the opportunity to get to the shelters under the sand hills. We had received a direct hit on the machine shop and my friend was killed. We were told later that the German Bombers had come out of the clouds and seen the sun shining on the car windscreens in the car park — that’s what had given us away.

I was asked to go back as I was an Inspector and I had to put a quality stamp on the ‘stays’ (material used to build the Wellington Bombers) I was too scared — this was my christening of the War.

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