大象传媒

I was living in Stepney, in the east End of London. It was about '43, '44. I was about seven or eight. My aunt, Helen Wright, was living in Sevenoaks and my mother, Annie Hughes and I were going to visit her on the train.

We were going through Dunton Green Station and the doodlebug fell right beside the train. The train tipped right over. It was blown and it rocked. A man picked me up and gave me to my mother. We were all tumbling about, but the train went back on four whells. I think it stopped but carried on. There was no point stopping, there was so much chaos, we'd have made it worse. If you go past there now you can see where the new houses have been built in place of the flattened ones... a whole section was taken out by the doodlebug.

I was seven years old; I'd been in the blitz in London. To be honest, once I'd got over the shock of being tipped over, I thought it was quite exciting. It wasn't a novelty because we were surrounded by air raid sirens all the time and bombings because they were after the docks and the Essex railway which ran from Fenchurch Street to Southend.

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Helena Noifeld of 大象传媒 Radio Kent and has been added to the website on behalf of Anne Sinclair with her permission. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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