大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Age Concern, Dorchester on behalf of Mrs Joyce Catchpole, and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Catchpole fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

鈥淚 was living in Hackney, East London at the start of the war. I was 6 years old. I had just started school when they closed it down 鈥� I think because of the London Blitz. Then I went to a private school. I鈥檓 sure the two sisters who ran it were in their 80s. There were about 8 or 10 children and we sat round a big round table.

I was in London all through the V1s 鈥� the London Blitz. We slept in a big Anderson Shelter in the garden. It was lovely and warm. I had a funny dog bag with all my favourite things in it. Once a friend of the family came to tell us that he came back to his house and put the key in the front door but there was no house on the other side.

My stepfather was in the Auxiliary Fire Service and he was mostly out. Once we were in the Anderson Shelter and the police came to all the shelters and made us get out because there was a landmine. We went in a crocodile down three London streets. It was a beautiful moonlight night. The people in charge kept saying, 鈥淜eep in the hedge, keep in the hedge鈥�. We were being machine-gunned by the German planes. We had to stay at a friend鈥檚 house while the mine, which was in a parachute round a chimney, was made safe.

The V1s were frightening. We used to hear that nasty whirring, then they stopped. If they were so close we thought that we would be all right and that they would drop somewhere else. When we were in the house when the siren went off we would always hold our breath because very likely a German plane would be following that plane. I remember a huge fire between Clapton and Hackney. I was taken to see it. A huge range of shops and houses had all gone.

When the V2s (Doodlebugs) arrived my stepfather sent Mother and I down to Winfrith to his mother鈥檚 cottage where we would be safe. I went to the village school there for 9 months until the end of the war.

I went to an end of the war street party in Clapton, East London.鈥�

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