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"This story was submitted to the site by the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Peoples War Team in the East Midlands with Arthur Theakers permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

My dad was killed on Baden road along with two other men. He was killed at midnight during the blitz of 1941. there were two houses that were destroyed and the men died due to blast injuries. My dad was 35 years old, there was a 19 year old on embarkation leave and the other man was a bus driver. There was another chap opposite the house who was very badly injured — the night that St Christopher’s church got bombed the clock stuck at 1.30. My grand mother lived in the city, only two streets away from where I lived. When she came round she found the rest of the family sheltering in the air raid shelter. She was really surprised to hear that my dad had been killed — it was the same night that the co op was bombed. At the time I was 6 and the reality didn’t come to me until later on when the war finished and the other lads dads were coming home from the war. That was the first time that I really felt it and realized that I didn’t have a companion to be with and do things that fathers and sons do.

At school we’d be having lessons and then have to run down into the air raid shelter. It was very different down the shelter and there’d just be two benches down the long side and an oil lamp burning in the centre. The teacher tried to keep us amused by singing ditties.

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