大象传媒

My Mother and I lived with my Grandparents. We lived in Tillotson Street which was off Hall Lane Kensington. We lived in a terraced house three storey's high. At the beginning of the war four communal shelters were built down the middle of the street and families were allocated to a specific shelter. However my Grandad did not like the idea of sharing nights, during an air raid, with his neighbours so he said we would stay in our own house.

First of all a mattress was put under the table and when the sirens sounded, that is where we would go. That didn't work too badly at first, it was a little cramped but we managed, that is, until a mouse decided to share the mattress with us. Oh boy!! Hitler himself could not have made my Mother scream as loudly as she did. That put paid to sheltering under the table because my Mother refused point blank to go under that table again. My Grandad still refused to go into the street shelter so the next idea was to go in the coal place under the stairs. A sheet of tarpaulin was placed over what little coal we had and again when the air raid sirens sounded that is where we went. It certainly was not the most comfortable place to spend the night but again we managed, that was, until that fateful night. It happened during the May Blitz when the air raids were at their worst. We had had a bad night so were glad to go to bed but we never got there. My Uncle slept in the attic and when he went up there he found a big hole in the roof and lying on his bed an incendiary bomb which luckily had not exploded. Of course there was a bit of pandemonium, the Air Raid Warden was informed and the bomb was removed. I'm not sure who the men were who removed it, whether they would have been Bomb Disposal or Firemen.

After that the Air Raid Warden paid my Grandad a visit and told him that after the incident with the bomb we had to go into the Shelter when there was an air raid, as we had been very lucky not to have been killed when that bomb went through the roof. Needless to say he had to comply and that is when things became more exciting for me. Being in the Shelter at Night meant I saw my friends with whom I was able to play games and also neighbours took it in turn to reading us stories to keep us occupied. My Grandparents realised it wasn't so bad after all and I think because of it they got to know their neighbours a lot better.

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