大象传媒

I was 10 years old when war was declared and I have one or two lasting memories of the next three years.

One was of a daylight raid by the Germans on the BAC. I think it was on a Friday. I was home from school for some minor illness and when the air raid sirens sounded I went down to the Anderson shelter in the garden. It was fitted with a wooden door but I kept it open to see what was happening.

I watched the planes flying from left to right (I lived in Wick Road, Brislington) and the dog fight that followed. As I watched I saw a Gernab twin-engined bomber suddenly fall, nose first, with the tail shot clean away, it spiralled as it fell slowly down. Strangely, I felt pity for the men inside, who were going to die, men who had, minutes before, been killing my neighbours.

I had one very lucky friend who went to the shelter when a raid started. A bomb, about 25 lbs, hit the corner of his house a glancing blow and fell to the ground without exploding. The brick it had dislodged fell onto the pillow where his head would have been.

Another classmate was not so lucky. He went to the shelter with his family and was killed when the shelter received a direct hit, killing them all, but leaving their clock still ticking

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.