大象传媒

I was 10 years old in 1940, and my father was away with the 5th Essex Regiment. Several air raids had happened in the Chelmsford area in July or early August. My aunt Alice, living in Brentwood, invited us to stay for a week as they had not experienced any raids.

After a couple of days of arriving in Brentwood, on this particular day my sister had left my Aunt鈥檚 house early in the morning to go to her job in Chelmsford. At about lunchtime my mother and I had just gone out of the front door in Gresham Road, when I looked up and saw a plane directly overhead, flying very low. (It turned out to be a captured French plane, so there was not a siren). As we both looked up, the trap door of the plane opened and two bombs fell out landing on four houses on the Warley side of the Railway Station instead of the rail line. Luckily everyone was dug out alive and when the children were dug out, they still had their knives and forks in their hands.

When this occurred, I had a green hat on to match my coat and it fell off when we ran into my Aunt鈥檚 next door neighbour鈥檚 home. At the time, a soldier was walking up the road and he picked up the hat and put in on my Aunt鈥檚 doorstep.

In consequence we did not stay long and returned to Chelmsford. The Battle of Britain followed shortly after but that is another story.

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