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In 1944 I was living in Wheeler Street in Maidstone, and remember all the times we had to rush to the air raid shelter in the garden.

I remember once being sent to bed at around eight or nine o’clock as usual, and an hour later my mother woke me up telling me to get up because we had to go to the air raid shelter. You had to take everything with you to the shelter because it was damp in there, so nothing could be kept there in advance. It was just a thin metal shed, sunk into the ground with earth piled on top that men who hadn’t gone to war had come round and built for us. I’d take a big blanket for my mattress and my mother would take a few valuables as well, and you’d go out to the shelter. I remember running outside and seeing the search lights sweeping the sky, massive beams of light looking for enemy planes shining miles into the night, sweeping in different directions. I could also see anti-aircraft fire coming from close by; there were batteries in Brenchley Gardens, Mote Park and at the Maidstone Barracks among other places in Maidstone. We’d sleep down in the shelter over night and then my mother would wake me in the morning. It would be time to take everything back into the house again. Some weeks this would happen every night, sometimes just a couple of nights a week depending on how clear the weather was. When we ran outside you’d see all the neighbours along the road coming out of their houses as well, and I remember chatting with them like we’d just met down the shops, instead of running to the shelters like we should have been! Being just a kid it was exciting to watch, you’d never seen anything like it before, all that noise and light. I was a little bit frightened but mostly being so young it was just exciting.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by James Barton from Westree Learning Centre and has been added to the website on behalf of Raymond Allan Wright with his/her permission and they fully understand the site’s terms and conditions.

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