大象传媒

I was a young schoolgirl in Enfield, North London, during the war (Lavender Road Elementary ). When the blitz started we huddled under the coats in the school cloakroom every time the siren sounded! After the playground shelters were built, we trooped down and sat singing songs and eating sweets from a large jar handed round by the teachers, who also told or read us stories. We enjoyed this better than lessons ! For a while we had half day schooling as so many teachers had entered the Forces.

At home I remember looking up at the sky during the day-time raids and seeing it quite full of the Luftwaffe planes in formation . The noise of their engines was quite distinctive.

Nights became a nightmare of sirens wailing, the reverberations from nearby anti-aircraft guns shaking our windows and doors repeatedly, and having to huddle under the table as father had not yet obtained a shelter. I sometimes crept into the cupboard under the stairs. Next morning we used to collect the shrapnel in the garden. Our windows were all shattered when a bomb fell in the garden opposite.

The prevailing mood in the community was one of utter defiance. When in hospital for some treatment, the children's ward rang with the chanting of impolite songs about Hitler and Mussolini.

Towards the end of the war, when we were sleeping upstairs again we suffered an unexpected air-raid. A crate of incendiary bombs was dropped on our block of houses. Frightened by the noise of the planes I had just run from my bedroom into my brother's . Two incendiaries then fell through my bedroom ceiling and down right by the bed into the hall below. I rushed screaming onto the landing to discover huge flames roaring up the stairway. Fortunately the local fire-watchers were soon in to put out the flames and rescue us.

Then came the 鈥楧oodlebugs' (V1's). I remember lying flat on my face in the street as one came swooping low.

During the V2 period we trooped down the garden path every night dressed in thick sweaters and trousers to the Anderson shelter. Whenever one exploded a white light lit up the inside of the shelter before the sound of the explosion reached our ears. Father always said "I wonder what poor devils are getting it tonight ?".

One fell nearby at the top of Lavender Hill, Gordon Hill, (Enfield). A considerable area of housing was obliterated.

Our VE day street party was terrific. We youngsters were dressed up as cockneys and danced and sang the 鈥楲ambeth Walk' on an improvised stage!

Janet Pelham (nee Dennison )

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