大象传媒

I was six and I visited my very nice aunt at Reigate in 1940.

Just short of 7am the siren sounded, and we traipsed down to the basement, where there was a claustrophobic Morrison shelter, basically a reinforced cage. We didn't get in it as it looked awful. Then the bombers and the bombs came, terrible screaming things.

My aunt and I screamed in unison, but I do remember a woman there who was so calm.
We got away with a near miss. My policeman uncle came back and we looked at the damage in the cemetery of all places. He later served as sergeant drill instructor in the guards.

Another thing I remember about Reigate was a huge shelter in an embankment. It had a sandy floor and I felt ever so cosy and safe playing in the sand.

After the bombing dad came mighty quick to pick me up in his upright Armstrong Siddeley. So I left my aunt, my favourite but that's another story, later to come back and make balsa wood models of Hurricanes. She was a superb character and encouraged me greatly (funnily towards my career in aviation), just the aunt for a happy boy, no heroine but cuddly just like mum!

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