大象传媒

It was the summer of 1944 - "the doodlebug summer". I was seven and my sister was ten. We lived in a council house in South East London.

The August weather was lovely but, as kids, we were kept near the house. More to the point, we kept near the Anderson shelter in the back garden. At frequent intervals we heard the dreaded staccato burble of an approaching V1 and it was our job to warn the neighbours if it was thought there was a threat to the immediate vicinity.

The V1 had a peculiar technical characteristic inasmuch as that, when the guidance system tilted the craft downwards, the engine cut out due to fuel shortage, giving a few seconds warning that it was about to plummet from the sky.

It was lunchtime - Mum was cooking dinner and we were playing at the back when we heard a V1 coming in our direction. We shouted, "Quick, Mum, there's one coming"! Mum ran out to join us in the shelter. Then, remembering that she had left her purse behind (!), she turned back. When finally she reached the shelter entrance, the V1's motor had cut out. Mum looked up and saw "a big black shape overhead". Then all went up in a huge expolsion. A deafening, thunderous blast. Noise, dust and bits and pieces flying everywhere. As Mum was blown into the shelter on top of us, she called - "its ours"!

For a time, though deafened, we realised that we had survived - "Thank God". We slowly emerged - our immediate neighbours also appearing - the man next door with his parrot in a cage in his hand. The air was filled with acrid smoke and dust. Our house was half demolished - the roof blown off and the walls sagging down. Broken joists and rafters sticking up to the sky. Fortunately for us, the flying bomb had plunged to the ground on the other side of our house thus saving us from the direct blast. I seem to remember an eerie silence. Then the emergency services arrived and went into action. We were shepherded to the back of the garden and kept there.

Later, the full tragedy of the bomb became known. Nine people were killed, including four adults and two children of the same family living across the road who died as a result of a direct hit on their shelter. Fourteen people were injured.

Of couse, many of us were made homeless. An emergency centre was provided at the local primary school where everyone mucked in. Indeed, spirits were high and I remember sing-songs and extra goodies for we children. After a week or so, we travelled up to Lancashire to stay with my father who was working there.

Our house was rebuilt soon after the war and we kids had great fun playing in the surrounding buildings which were still wrecked.

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