大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Louise angell of the CSV Action desk at 大象传媒 Radio Derby, on behalf of Margaret Turner. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

I was married in 1939. Women had to go out to work to help the war effort but I'd never worked so my husband suggested we have a child. We had a baby in 1941. My husband was an engineer and worked shifts so I didn't see a lot of him. he wasn't allowed to tell us what her did so he used to say he made dolls eyes in a factory! it was one May around 1940 when we had the heaviest bombing. There was a field over the road where 5 air force men were stationed in a tent. they used to warn us if 'there was a purple on' which meant the enemy was in the area. We'd bank up the fire then as we knew we'd be sitting downstairs for longer. This particular night we'd stopped up. we could here the planes coming closer. By that time we had a shelter in the garden. The bottom was like a concrete bath and the rest covered over with soil and grass. Everyone else in the street had scattered but we didn't get the chance to move before we heard a 'boom'. A bomb hit the roof of our house, bounced off and hit a house over the road then landed in their garden. It made a hole big enough for a house. An older couple, who were neighbours, had a dish of eggs on the side at the time. The force lifted the eggs up but didn't break one. We were very lucky. Our House was damaged. All the windows were blown out and we were left with just one light. All the ceilings were gone and we had no roof. after 3 months of being rained on my husband got fed up and got a tarpaulin to cover the hole.

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