大象传媒

Growing up in London was a very frightening experience. One thing that sticks out in my mind happened when I was 5 years old. It was the night our ceiling fell in. There wasn't enough time for us to get to the air raid shelter so we stayed in a downstairs bedroom. The bombs were dropping very close; their target was the railway line at the end of our turning. Some of the bombs missed the target and fell on the sugar depot at the back of our house. There was a terrible explosion, the windows all smashed and the house fell on top of us. I was terrified and my brothers were all screaming. There was debris and dust all around us and panic and confusion. Mum was trying to open the door into the passage that led to the front door but it was jammed with all the debris that had fallen behind it. We could hear people calling us and trying to get in to help us. It wasn't until the ARP wardens arrived and broke down the front door and cleared the hallway that we were finally helped to the shelter. Quite a few of our friends and neighbours were killed that night but thankfully we lived to tell the tale.

This story was submitted to the People's War website by a volunteer from AWLHRG on behalf of Pauline Kingett and has been added to this site with her permission. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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