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I was born in early 1943 and the war ended in late ’45, so I suppose my memory must be about the summer of ‘45. I was living in North London with my mother, dad was somewhere out with the RAF, and we were at the garden gate (we had garden gates in those days, I seem to remember) and mum was just chatting to a neighbour, and I was just chatting with her, and we looked up, I can remember looking up and seeing something in the sky, and mum and the neighbour just stood transfixed. It turned out to be a doodlebug, as we called them, I think that was the V Two rockets, and while they were making a noise you were OK because it meant there was still an engine and they were still flying. But the engine cut out, just as it approached us and my mother was horrified! We charged down the garden path, into the house and under the living room table, any kind of defence was better than none! I can still remember the legs of the table.

We learned later that it had exploded about half a mile away on what is now a school but it was just an open field at the time. And that really is the extent of my war memories.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Sue Craig on behalf of Alan Cooke and has been added to the site with his permission. Alan fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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