- Contributed by听
- Bicestercommentator
- People in story:听
- Dorothy Edwards
- Location of story:听
- Aberdeen, Scotland
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A4798650
- Contributed on:听
- 05 August 2005
It was the summer of 1943 and I was living at home in Aberdeen.The city was used to small scale air raids up to that point, being an important port, so the sound of an air raid siren was nothing new and as a seventeen year old I was used to it.
This was different however, nothing had happened on this scale previously. We rushed to the brick built community air raid shelter. I lived above a pub at the time so shared the shelter with our neighbours. I remember mothers cluching their children and babies wrapped in eiderdowns as they rushed into the shelter. It was late in the evening but being double summertime it was still just light outside.As the dark descended we could see the searchlights sweeping the sky through the open doorway of the shelter. Dad had been reluctant to go into the shelter but had been persuaded. My mother and sister were soon helping to look after the children in the shelter. We heard the sound of the anti-aircraft guns firing as the bombers approached.The noise of the bombs and guns firing made it frightening. People in the shelter kept looking out to see what was going on. We heard afterwards that many had been killed in the raid.
After the raid had finished and we had been in the shelter for a couple of hours, we went back home. The windows had been shattered and everything was covered with a layer of dust. There was a bad smell about the place and the taste of smoke got in my mouth. The water supply no longer worked and I remember hating that I couldn't clean my teeth!
Life had to go on so in the morning I went to work as usual. I was employed in a butcher's shop in the suburbs of Aberdeen. It was difficult to get to work and travel across the city as there were few trams running due to the disruption. When I got near to the butcher's shop I could see that the big house and tenement blocks close by had been bombed. I was told that there had been many killed. It was a night I shall never forget.
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