大象传媒

During the war, Bristol, where I lived, was heavily bombed by the Luftwafe as they targeted the docks and the aircraft factory. the night raids were not very accurate, so, as a consequence the centre of the city was devastated.
In 1941 I had gone to a friend's house (and shop) near the city centre, when, in the evening the siren had sounded for an air raid. We immediately took cover in the basement. The german plane swept in and immediately dropped it's incendiary bombs. Fire broke out in buildings, shops, cinemas, houses, etc. while the Ack-Ack guns blazed away. Then the firemen arrived to put out the fire in the public house opposite the shop I was visiting. The family started taking cups of tea to the wonderful brave firemen across the road. I was seventeen years old then and I cannot remember feeling at all scared.
Suddenly, we heard the roar of an engine and an aeroplane came soaring through the billowing smoke as it swirled up into the sky. The plane was so low over us that the Swastikas were clearly visible on the wings. We stared in horror! Although no more bombs were dropped then, the pilot must have been assessing the damage before the next stage of the raid.....the high explosives! We just continued serving the firemen their cups of tea!

In the same year, 1941, on the morning following another night raid, we were walking up a hill from the centre of Bristol which was lined with terraces of houses and shops, two and three storeys high. Most of them were badly bombed and still smoking from the bombs of the previous night. The roofs and the floors had gone, but the walls remained standing.
On the first floor of one of these buildings, a fireplace had survived with part of its hearth still intact. There, sitting on the remains of a beam at the hearth, was a tabby cat cleaning itself! The sight of it brought a lump to the throat! It must have fled in terror when the bombs dropped, but when the raid was over returned to it's own fireplace the next morning... hoping to be fed, no doubt!

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