大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Rachel Conway from Brighton and has been added to the website on behalf of Maureen Blakey (nee Goodyer) with her permission and they fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

A letter from Daddy came when I was an evacuee in Goring-by-Sea in 1939 and 1940. It explained that Links Road School was moving its evacuees to Scotland and went onto say that he would find it difficult to visit. At the end of the letter it said I should come back to Tooting. I didn鈥檛 hesitate I was homeward bound, bound to my darling Dad, Grandma and Cromor Road. It was great, wonderful, I loved the house and to be back was a great comfort. I felt safe, to see everything and everyone who were familiar 鈥� it was so good and I was a very happy girl.

But this safe feeling was shortlived 鈥� London was soon a very dangerous place to be as the sirens rang out and the bombs would fall. We had to get out of our warm beds and go down to the shelter at the bottom of the garden. Gone was Granddad鈥檚 lovely garden, replaced by an Anderson Shelter, Grandma would wrap us up in blankets. Sleep was difficult with all the noise going on outside as bombs exploded nearby. Dad would stand just outside and give us a running commentary as to what was going on in the sky. There would be 鈥榙og fights鈥� our planes chasing the German Luftwaffe off. Grandma would be saying to Dad, 鈥淧erce will you please get in here where it is safe鈥� he in return replied 鈥淚n a minute Mother, our boys are up there, they鈥檝e got them on the run!鈥� In fact it was quite funny 鈥� Grandma would be huffing and puffing and getting exasperated with Dad, and he not wanting to miss anything that was going on in the sky. Sadly the German planes did not leave until they had dropped their bombs on London 鈥� all along the Thames and the docks. The sky was a red glow from where the bombs had fallen. Most times it was early morning before the 鈥榓ll clear鈥� went off to let us know it was safe to go back indoors. People would return to their homes and get on with the day ahead, it was wonderful the way people coped.

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