大象传媒

We lived in Enfield during the war, and I clearly remember one particular raid we suffered. It had been going on for about an hour, when the all clear sounded. From the shelter we could hear the dog barking. I went out to shut him up, and to pop to the toilet which was also outside. I got into the garden and came face to face with a German. He had obviously bailed out during the raid, and his parachute had got caught in the apple tree. I can still see him there holding his parachute straps. I don't know who was more frightened! In minutes, about a dozen soldiers appeared with fixed bayonets. One of them climbed up the tree and cut him down. He was then taken away. I went straight off to do my gate duty, where I was armed with a wooden gun. Quite what I would have done if faced by the enemy I don't know; I would probably have had to hit him.

I remember on one occasion going to London to see my grandparents in Camden Town. I was going to stay for the weekend, but you didn't sleep in their house - you had to stay in the underground station. I clearly remember seeing blood running in the gutter like rain.

During another raid in Enfield, I remember we came out and saw that the road opposite, the road behind, and the road to the side of us had taken direct hits. We had not been touched.

One Saturday, my brother, cousin and I were walking across the local park. Suddenly a German plane appeared, dived at us, and started machinegunning us. Two soldiers threw themselves over us, while another grabbed a young baby from a pram. No one was hurt, but there were bullet holes in the pram, and all round where we had been lying. We certainly kept our Guardian Angel busy!

During this time I was training with the Girls Training Corps to be a nurse. One night, we had some soldiers pretendimg to be wounded patients. We had to throw ourselves over the patient, draw our guns, and fire at the Germans. We all did this except my friend Lydia, who stood up. When fronted by the officer who shouted "Cook, what the h**l do you think you're doing?" she replied, "He's nearly dead, I don't want to be dead, so I'm surrendering". The officer shouted back, "You are in the King's uniform, and you will not surrender". In front of everyone, she took off her uniform, and said "He can have it back, I didn't want to go in it in the first place."

We were then taken to a local hospital, which was supposed to be on fire. We had to go to the top, and the soldiers were still our patients. Lydia and I had to put our soldier in a blanket, and carry him down eight flights of stairs. At the bottom he was asked by the officer how we had done. He turned round and said that if he wasn't dead before, he certainly would be now as we had hit every step on the way down. Two days later he had the bruises to prove it.

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