大象传媒

My mother, who was born in Umtata in the Transki in South Africa came to live in the UK a few years before the war. She became a nurse and was in Portsmouth during the bombing of the port during WW2.

She told me a few stories about the horrors that she saw. But one the sticks in my mind is very short.

She had been on duty for some hours, the German bombers had not come over that evening and she and some other staff were sitting in a building that was being used as an Aid Station. It had been bomb proofed, this entailed placing earth up and over the roof of a corrugated iron hut.

The ends were made from brick and had sand bags over the windows, and around the front. The doors which were at both ends of the hut had blast walls built in front of them. The idea being to stop anything but a direct hit.

The wall would deflect the bomb splinters if one was to land close by, the doors were left open so that they would not be blown in.

The people on duty were sitting chatting and enjoying a cup of tea, when they heard the sound of the air raid sirens.

Unlike the civilian population who were heading for their shelters. Mum and the others knew that shortly they would be called out to help the injured.

So, tin hats on and gas masks at the ready, they all sat tight and waited for the bombers to drop their cargos and head back across the Channel.

They could hear the sound of engines as the planes made their way along the coast looking for the monument on Southsea sea front, before turning inland and heading for the naval dockyard.

Hearing the unmistakable sound of German bomber engines getting closer, they knew that the part of Portsmouth they were in was going to be the target that night. The engine noise grew louder and then they heard the sound of the bombs hitting the ground, a dull crump, the sounds grew louder still as the planes flew over head. The bombs were heading in their direction.

They hit the next road, then there was a loud bang and a massive blast of air through the open door. Mum was picked up from the floor sitting on a chair, the blast carried her down the a middle of the building and dropped her still sitting in the chair to the floor. Less than a second later there was another loud bang and a bomb dropped at the other end of the building. The blast did the same thing again, but in reverse and carried her back the other way.

The only thing she suffered from was shock, and she was out helping to care for the wounded a short time later.

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