大象传媒

On Sat 7th sept.1940 Itook my girlfriend up to see a matinee at the Aldwich theatre,the name of the play escapes me but I remember that during the interval there was an announcement from the stage that an air-raid was in progress the play would continue and the audience were invited to take shelter under the stage when the show was over.We were quite used to air raids and as a rule continued our normal life style when they were in progress,so after the show we wandered up to Oxford street and ended up in Hyde Park where a military band was playing. It was a beautiful September day warm and balmy so we hung about till dusk then decided to make our way home to Ilford. The buses were still running in Oxford street in spite of the fact that the air raid was still in progress somewhere in the distance While waiting for the bus in Oxford Street I noticed a wonderful red glow in the windows of Selfridges and I thought it mst be the sunset,little did I know.We caught a bus to Liverpool Street Station,but when we got to Ludgate hill the Conductor refused to go any further. By this time we realised that this was no ordinary air raid ,the ack-ack was banging away there was a continuous drone of aircraft overhead and shrapnel was flying about. Being foolish young people we decided to walk the rest of the way to Liverpool street station,the journey was noisy and a bit worrying as air raid wardens kept shouting to us to take cover, but we "veterans of air raids" pushed on and made it to the station where of course all the trains had been cancelled. We were told to take shelter in the underground tunnels beneath the station. We were only wearing light summer clothing and the tunnel was very cold,so when it was announced at 2oclock in the morning that a train was about to leave calling at all stations to Brentwood we gladly climbed aboard.
As we pulled out of the station we realised that this was an air raid of great magnitude. We could see flames leaping above the rooftops of the buildings alongside the track, bombs were whistling down overhead,the carriage was rocking from side to side with the force of the explosions, buildings alongside the track were being hit by the bombs and we wondered if the train would become a target, it was all hell let loose.
I well remember a young fighter pilotwho was in our compartment. He was so tiredhaving been involved in the Battle of Britain that he slept through it all.
The train stopped about half a mile outside Stratford Station and for about half an hour we sat there waiting for it to continue its journey while the battle raged around us, when it became obvious that the train had stopped for good we decided to get out and walk along the track to Stratford station,hazardous at any time but under these circumstances terrifying.
We sheltered in the subways under Stratford station for the rest of the night with a lot of terrified people who had been bombed out of Silvertown.
On arriving home in Ilford I met my father on his way to church."Hello" he said "Where have you been, it was a bit noisy round here last night." Little did he know.

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