大象传媒

On the night of Jan.2nd & 3rd 1941 the Luftwaffe decided to bomb the city. According to records the raid started at 6.35pm and lasted for ten hrs. That maybe, but at sometime early evening there was a gargantuan, colossal explosion, which was terrifying. I was eleven years old at the time. Whether I,and my family, were in our Anderson shelter or the house at the time of the explosion I cannot remember, but it was clear in my mind that our street had been bombed: but our house was intact? In fact a landmine had landed about 3/4ml away. Immediately after the explosion I went out into the garden at the back of the house and I found the sky brilliant lit. The German bombers had used a lot of flairs and with fires raging the sky was like a firework display- with a difference. I thought The row of houses opposite were on fire because I could see flames in the upstairs windows. Come to think of it that was a bit daft because the whole house would have been on fire, but when your young and frightened it was understandable.In fact it was the reflection from fires elsewhere. But the thing I really remember was the dust and debris. The atmosphere was saturated,thick with the stuff. You could hardly breath. While all this was going on bombs were falling-you could hear them whistling- explosions, anti aircraft guns going off, fire engines clanging their bells.
General mayhem. Then, after this, looking out from our shelter we thought our house was rather 'lit up',after all there was a blackout and we had put the lights out. It gradually dawned on us that the house was on fire. An incendiary bomb had gone through the kitchen roof. This was a single ground floor extension with a pitched roof.Everyone shot out of the shelter. whether it was right or wrong we sprayed water on the bomb, sand, and in our desperation, we even used rubbish from our rubbish bin. We put the fire out. I think it's phosphorous that comes from these bombs, but because the door had been left open there was fire damage in the next room.
The next morning there was no school. I decided to venture down to the bombed area. A landmine had landed in Blackstone street. The scene was horrendous. There was a tremendous amount of activity. Police cars, ambulances and fire engines. There appeared to be scores and scores of hose pipes crisscrossing everywhere. The fires had been put out but it had been freezing that night so there was ice everywhere. Great pools of the stuff. People were everywhere a great many being victims. They were sitting outside their bombed houses amongst their belongings, sleepless faces blackened and utterly bewildered. Not a house in the area was intact and this was for a large area.Behind Blackstone street,in the gardens, there was a huge crater and I assumed this was where the landmine had landed. You could have dropped houses into it.It mesmerised me. There were gaps where houses were missing; roofs half blown away. The memorable thing for me was the fact that you could not see the tarmac on the road or pavement. It was completely covered by roof slates,bricks and roofing timber. In retrospect it has occured to me, that had you been walking down the road at that time, you would have been cut to pieces- providing the blast had not killed you.What about the air raid wardens? Many people were killed that night. This was not the only bomb scene because landmines and bombs had fallen almost in the next few streets. I took the trouble to walk further and saw a land mine by the side of the road, obviously defused, with passing traffic nonchalantly getting on with life.
This landmine was shaped like a large cigar.From memory it was about a metre diameter and about 3or4metre long. It appeared they descended by parachute.
There were many other areas of the city bombed that night including a landmine falling on Llandaff Cathedral badly damaging the building.

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