大象传媒

Epsom at the start of WW2

On September 4th 1939 the day after war was declared. I started my first day at school. I went to the Infants鈥� school in White Horse Drive, with my sandwiches and my gas mask. My teacher was Miss Bentley and my first lesson was in a brick built shelter in the playground as the air raid siren had just gone off. (the air raid shelter is still in the grounds of the old school)

I lived in West Hill in Epsom with my parents, Grandmother and sister, later to be joined by my two cousins who were bombed out of their home. We had two Morrison shelters in our lounge with sandbags on the windowsills and a blast wall outside.
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Two large concrete tank traps were built between our house and next door. Our neighbours in Hookfield had twenty-four tank traps right across their lawn.
A house on the other side of the road going towards Epsom Common, at the bottom of West Hill, was commandeered by the army who built a pill-box in the front room which had a view right up to Parklawn Avenue and across the Common.

The land on Epsom Common from Christchurch to the Stew Ponds and the Wells Estate was levelled to the ground and sown with wheat and barley.

Thirty feet deep by eighteen feet wide tank traps were dug alongside Stamford Green Pond up to the Scout hut next to the Church and a searchlight battery was installed near the Church.

I remember a German Messerschmitt flying very low along Epsom High Street, coming down over the Clock Tower. It was heading towards Ewell and being chased by a Spitfire. Everyone ran into the shops to take cover. The aircraft was shot down by the Spitfire over Epsom Downs; the pilot baled out and was captured.

During the war, my father worked for the Metal Box Co near London Bridge, making munitions. On many occasions the trains were hated at Clapham Junction and the passengers had to walk the rest of the way. I remember Dad talking about land mines hanging from parachutes entangled with telephone lines around London Bridge Station.

In the evenings and at weekends, my Dad was an air-raid warden stationed in West Hill House. I used to go out with him at weekends delivering gas masks. We were all issued with a gas mask, the children being given a 鈥淢ickey Mouse鈥� gas mask with a red rubber tongue.

Michael Osborne

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