大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Simon Harris and has been added to the website on behalf of Joyce Lewis with her permission and they fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

I was very lucky to have had the good experience of being evacuated to the rural idyll of Beccles from the bombs of Dagenham. We had arrived via boat from Dagenham docks to Lowestoft and then by coach across country. We slept on straw over night before I was assigned to The Ling鈥檚 who were lovely.

While in Beccles I used to cross from the Ling鈥檚 cottage to collect milk. I also used to walk along the tow path where I saw barges with large red sails. But the damp atmosphere in this part of Suffolk affected my hearing and I had to return to Dagenham. I soon found that air raids would disrupt school days but we would just continue our lessons in the shelter. Later I managed to pass a scholarship to get in to college in Ilford. One day a V2 came down on Ilford鈥檚 cinema which was nearby. The impact destroyed the windows and brought down the ceiling of my college class room whilst we were having a lesson.

It was a shame that the cinema was destroyed. One of the biggest treats we had was to go and see a film.

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