大象传媒

In 1941 I was five years old. We lived in South London, on the borders of Kent. Because of the attention of the Luftwaffe, this area became known as 'Bomb Alley'. If they had any bombs left after attacking London, they dropped them on Kent, before making their way back across the Channel.

Dad, being too old for military service, was retained as a 'Fire Watcher'. Most nights he stayed in the City of London where he worked. Equipped with a helmet and whistle, he looked for fires caused by bombs.

Later, after we moved to Brighton, he was arrested by the police after buying a map, and looking around.

One day I was playing in the back garden when I saw IT. There it was, in the middle of the rear lawn! It was about 12" long with fins at the top, beautifully shiny and silver in colour.

It looked mightily attractive to a small boy. I ran eagerly towards it. How good, I thought, would it look on my windowsill. Carrying it inside I shouted excitedly, "Mum, come and see what I've got!"

Mum had been upstairs hoovering and polishing. As my tone was so upbeat though, she came downstairs. The sight of my silver burden horrified her.

"Pete, oh Pete. Put it down! No, don't put it down!" She grabbed my shoulders carefully and led me into the front garden.

"Put it down on the grass, Pete, but very slowly!" I carefully laid it on the grass but was disappointed to hear that I would not be able to retain my new treasure.

The Air Raid Wardens were summoned and they took my lovely bomb away in their handcart for the military to explode later. Shame! I had come to think of it MY bomb.

One evening, Mum was sitting with Eileen, my eldest sister. Bombs were dropping all over London. A bomb dropped extremely close, with a tremendous 'boom' and an incandescent flash.

Eileen's hands flew to her ears. Her quavery voice exclaimed, "I've gone deaf!" Mum distractedly replied, "NO you haven't." The reply came back, "Yes I have, Yes I have."

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