大象传媒

At the begining of WW2 I lived with my parents at 93 Grove lane Birmingham 21.My father Henry Roland Fleming realised that the German Air Force would be dropping Incendary bombs on our City,In oreder to be prepared for this contigency we filled abot 150 Sandbags with sand these were stacked against the wall at the front of our shop.Sure enough one night in 1942 during a raid we were in the middle room of the building and we heard a noise which sounded like the breaking of glass.We then realised that the whole road was lit up by about a 120 incendery Bombs.Dad and I rushed out and put out nearly all of them using the prepared sandbags by dropping them on the burning Bombs the last bomb was being tackled by Fire Watchers using a Stirup Pump.My dad said to me go on show them how to put it out.I picked up a sandbag ran over to the bomb dropped the bag on it and jumped over it .The story does not end there.We went back into the house and were sitting down to a cup of tea when there was an almighty knocking on the front door,Dad went to the door opened it and a firewach said your house is on fire mate.My dad picked up a shovel and dashed upstairs to the loft he got the burning incendary on to the shovel and as he was coming down the loft stair A fire watcher with the nozzle of a stirup pump ran into the boxroom where the stair to the loft terminated and knocked the Incendry off the shovel it landed in all our carpets which had been put in the boxroom the fire was put out using the water which we had filled up the bath.Dad was not pleased .
An other short story was at the same address the sirens had sounded the alarm Dad and I were standing in the doorway at the front of the shop It went very quiet you could still hear the sound of the enemy planes .We then saw two Constables walking down the road opposite our shop Holly Road.Suddenly we saw them look up towards us then they lay down against the wall with their hands over their heads Dad said what on earth are they doing then there was a horrible scrapping noise anf at the same time the wind started blowing strongly dad and I saw what it was a Land Mine hanging from a parachute it went away from or shop following the line of the road opposite.Dad then said quick go and open the windows upstairs which I did and was half way down the stairs when the mine went off.It had come down at the other end of Holly Road in the road taking all the fronts of the houses only one person was injured and that was a young girl who fell back into the cellar where they were sheltering she had apparently pannicked.Dad said to my mother do you know young Nigel never batted an eyelid when we saw that land mine.

William Henry Nigel Fleming

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