大象传媒

I was 7 years old when war was declared and lived in South East London. Being a child I was evacuated to Kent when the air raids started. I was very unhappy and was subsequently returned home. We had an 'Anderson' air raid shelter in our back garden and when the warning of air raid started the whole family went to the shelter. The first one in was always Sandy our dog.
One day in 1942 there was a raid and my sister and her new baby were walking in the street trying to get to a shelter when a German plane machine-gunned the road. She managed to push the pram, baby and herself into a hedge and fortunately was unharmed. At this time my school was bombed with many caualties. I was posted as 'missing presumed dead'. Imagine the surprise fo amy aunt who had hurried to console my mother and father, when I opened the door. I was not at school that day as I had gone to the dentist.
After these traumatic experiences my sister, baby and myself were evacuated to Ludlow in Shropshire to a very remote cottage. The toilet was through a field of cows so at night we had to take a torch to visit the toilet so that we would not trip over a cow! There was an American Air force base just outside the town and it was there that my sister and I met Glen Miller. The serivicemen gave us sweets and chocolate. I went to school in Ludlow and we stayed there throughout what we thought was the worst of the bombing, but then the 'doodlebugs' started and the V2 silent rockets. The whole family, except my dad, went to Shropshire again. This time to Richards Castle - we stayed there until peace was declared and then VJ Day.
We finally returned to London to a huge street party - of which I still have a photograph.

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