大象传媒

In Leytonstone in the East End, there was a very bad air raid, and there was an old lady on the 6th floor of this block and she refused to come down to the air raid shelter. So the ARP wardens went up and said, 鈥淕rand-ma you must come down, this is a very bad air raid.鈥� But she refused saying 鈥淚鈥檓 sleeping in my bed鈥�, so they left her there. Later, after the raid, they came out, and this 10-storey tenement was flat as a pack of cards and when they finally found her she was still in her bed with no serious injury and she says, 鈥淵ou took your time. Hitler came quicker than you!鈥�

Returning to the nurses home one day, we were coming by a little path to the side and a plane come over and released a land mine with incendiaries attached to it. We all threw ourselves to the ground, but one of the girls, she came from Lancashire, and she threw her arms round this tree and clung to it for dear life. Another of the girls was 19 years old and came from Ireland, and she was crossing herself and praying, and when I saw her I said to her, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the matter?鈥� 鈥� I thought she was in hysterics or something. She said, 鈥淚鈥檓 a Catholic!鈥� I had never seen anyone do that before. I came from Lincolnshire.

The German planes, coming back from a raid on London, would sometimes drop their bombs near us. One time there was a flash outside the window, and I looked out and saw a land mine fall into the tennis court. Many of the animals in our farm were killed. We had our own farm and chapel and everything.

On another occasion several of us nurses went up to London 鈥� we wanted to see it before Hitler knocked it down. Coming back in the train we suddenly heard this rat tat tat and the sound of breaking glass. A German plane was shooting at the train, all along the line. We all threw ourselves onto the floor of the compartment, but we were in our best clothes (in those days you only had one set of best clothes) and of course they all got filthy dirty. When we got back to the hospital we always had to ring Matron to let her know we were safely home. When she heard what had happened to us she said she would let us have all our clothes cleaned in the hospital laundry.

The worst moment I had was one day while I was giving two ladies a bath in the hospital. There was a big whoosh and the windows blew in and the ceiling came down. I managed to get the ladies covered up and then went out into the corridor to see what had happened. When Sister saw me she cried 鈥淣urse, whatever has happened to you?鈥� I had not realised but I was covered in plaster and dirt and my uniform was all crooked. She, herself, made me a cup of tea and then sent me back to the nurses鈥� home for a bath and to change my uniform. They were normally very strict with us but I think they were told not to be too strict in the circumstances.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Joe Taylor for the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Muriel Anderton and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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