大象传媒

I lived in London for the whole of the war. At the first air-raids, we hadn't a shelter and my mother, sister and I went in the cupboard under the stairs. A large number of land mines were dropped by parachute. The ground under us shook when they landed and exploded. The parachutes were collected and people used the material to make clothing. We often were without electricity because the lines were damaged and sometimes we had no water if the pipes underground had been damaged. The gas mains were hit at times and as we had a gas stove, we couldn't cook.

We had an Anderson shelter put in the garden after a few months and went in that during air-raids. I lived about one mile from the London docks. The air-raid siren went on a lovely summer's evening. My mother, sister and I went into the shelter in the garden. We could hear the planes coming along to bomb the docks and could hear the bombs being dropped. Then as soon as each wave of planes had dropped their load, they made a quick turn for home. As they came wave after wave, it was some time before the raid was over. When we came out of the shelter, the smoke from the fires had blotted out the sunshine and it was just like twilight.

Next morning when I went out, I saw people walking along the road which led to the local school. They had lost their homes and been sent to the school as the only large building capable of taking them all that was still standing. Some had managed to retrieve a few belongings which they had in prams, pushchairs etc. We had had bombing before but seeing these poor souls really brought the war home to me.

Half way through the war, we moved to Wimbledon as the bank I worked for in the City had moved their offices to some large houses there and it didn't seem to get so much bombing. To go to the bank in the City, it took about half an hour on the bus. When I was moved to Wimbledon, it took One and a half hours as I had the get a trolley bus to the station, then travel 22 stations on the District Line and then another bus or a walk up a steep hill. As a large part of the District Line is underground, people were there with their blankets etc. on my journey home.

We were quite safe until the V1 and V2 flying bombs came. That was when we lost our home. A V2 fell on the houses opposite and my home got the blast from it. I was on my own at the back of the house so didn't feel the full force. I just stood there petrified with ceilings, windows and doors all falling around me. I got out by climbing over the big pieces of ceiling and walking over the front door. I was very lucky as, if I had been at the front of the house and got the full force of the blast, I would most likely have been killed.

After moving to Wimbledon, I was put in the part time fire service in the control room. Every sixth night I was on duty from 6pm to 6am. I had a couple of hours sleep in my own bed and off to work. When we were unable to live in our house because of the blast from the V2, the fireman managed to get a lorry to move our furniture to a house the bank I worked for had rented in case they needed to move more staff. It was stored there until the local council rehoused us. Meantime we slept in a friend's house, in the basement on makeshift beds.

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