´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War site by Wymondham Learning Centre on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

I was born at No 9, The Lizard, Wymondham on September 13th 1933. During the last war, my father built us a ‘dugout’ in our garden. It was a big hole that we could get in when an air raid was on. It was made with railway sleepers as walls and a tin roof with soil all over the top of that. The red seats were out of an old bus, so they were big enough for us children to sleep on.

I had 2 brothers. One, Tony, was born September 27th 1931 and Bobby was born March 14th 1936. My name is Joy.

While these raids were on at night, my father would stand outside with our neighbour, Mr Lusher, and watch what was going on. There were searchlights crossing across the sky with planes lit up in their light. If I heard a lot of noise outside, I would always want to go outside to have a wee, so I could see what was going on. My sister would be with us at first, then when my father remarried, our stepmother would be with us.

One Sunday morning, my brother Tony came running in saying a plane had just dropped ‘4 lovely blackbirds’ out of it. My father, knowing they were bombs, shut the door quickly and the bombs landed near the railway line, on the edge of the road, whilst the 4th bomb landed in Mr Brown’s back garden.

This plane was aiming for an ammunition train going along the line. The two bombs that dropped near the line blocked the river that ran underneath with only a small bridge for it to go through. We had to have the fire engine pumping the water round by the road until the bridge could be rebuilt. It’s much taller now and I don’t think it could happen again. The one that dropped into the side of the road broke the gas, electric and water mains. We as children were told if all 3 had not been broken, there would have been a big explosion. The one in Mr. Brown’s garden did not seem to do much, only make a big hole and break all the windows in his and neighbours’ houses. The Lizard House stood between these bombs as well.

There were also 4 bombs dropped on Mr Fryer’s Meadow that did not go off.

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