大象传媒

Borne in 1938 I was just a titch during the Battle of Britain but I reckon I still had the best collection of shrapnel in the area. As we were on the direct route of the flying bombs and German aircraft making for London there was ample opportunity to collect thos nasty bits of metal that fell to earth.
Indoors we had a Morrison shelter but outside we had an Anderson shelter, half buried under the ground with a foot thick blast wall covering the entrance. This blast wall did us proud when a land mine virtually destroyed a whole row of houses in a neighbouring street. I well remember helping my Dad dismantle the shelter after the war.
One of the most vivid memories I have is standing just outside the shelter and watching a doodle bug buzzing across the sky and a Spitfire (or was it a Hurricane?) diving on it with its guns firing continuously. The doodle bug crashed on a nearby brick works and many more pieces of shrapnel went into my collection the next day.
I was evacuated to Coventry when things got really bad and lodged with a lady and gentleman who lived in Sheridan Street; I wonder if it's still there. The man was the caretaker for a local school which was used as a boys club in the evening and my brother and I used to go along with him and set up the billiards tables.

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