大象传媒

On this particular day my father had gone as usual to work at the Bristol Aeroplane Company, in Filton in Bristol. My mother was ill in bed, and my friend had gone out to the country for the day to visit her grandmother, so I went along with my younger brother, Jim, and his friends out to an area known as 鈥淭he Steep鈥� just behind the Rectory. This was where all the local children congregated in a play area, just few large trees with ropes for swings and climbing or ballgames.
Whilst there, the siren sounded warning that enemy aircraft were in the vicinity, but we thought it was just another false alarm; nevertheless, we gathered together slowly and ambled towards home, where we knew that our mother would be expecting us.
Suddenly a roar in the sky made us look up to see dozens, maybe a hundred, aircraft heading our way; "Germans" we all shouted together. We rea1ised that we would not have time to make it safely home, although only a few yards up the lane, as we could hear the bombs dropping closer and closer and felt the ground shaking.
Luckily for us we ran into the public air raid shelter close by, and shutting the door we sat on a long wooden bench in the long dark tunnel. The sounds of the aircraft and bombs getting louder and nearer. "Lie on the floor" I shouted "get under the bench". Then a louder roaring thud, with a wind blowing the door in with leaves and twigs from the large tree nearby. After which we waited and waited for all to be quiet, then we slowly ventured out to see devastation, rubble everywhere, no roof tiles, no windows in all the houses, a huge hole across the road and a couple of houses demolished. We saw our mother coming towards us, crying, very relieved to see us.
And so people appeared, friends and neighbours huddled together in small groups, (only the noise of the fire engines and ambulances could be heard.) Everyone was very hushed, very shaken.
When my friend came that evening, we couldn't get into her back garden where we would have been playing. Just a wrecked shed and hen house with the contents scattered over the roofs and neighbours gardens, chickens, wire netting, bikes everywhere
What a mess, which did not seem to matter to anyone - we were all safe.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.