大象传媒

I was 15 when war was declared. Still at Finchley County School where schoolmates and I would swop shrapnel from anti-aircraft shells. Nose cones from same were 鈥渃ollectables鈥� then! Aircraft machine gun bullet clips were also desirable articles for exchange. These items would litter the roads and pavements after enemy action in the area and be traded like cigarette cards etc.

We would take turns in fire watching in the school overnight. I was not on duty when what was reported as a parachute bomb landed in the fields (Rough Lots) diagonally opposite from the school. It blew in all of the front windows and probably damaged much of the interior. Our schooling continued at the Henrietta Barnet Girls School in Golders Green for a time whilst repairs were carried out. The building still stands and is much the same externally today and I understand it is now local government offices.

After a year with an Import/Export organisation in East Finchley, I took up engineering, becoming an apprentice with a company in Willesden Green manufacturing a variety of items; aircraft structures, glass fibre forms and matting; machine reconditioning 鈥� you name it!

Once again, fire watching! The employees would continue working after the sirens had sounded until danger was approaching. When appropriate signals were given, machines were switched off and we walked quickly to the shelters. I remember one lunch time the sirens sounded and when I heard the familiar sound of the 鈥淒oodlebug鈥� or V1 rocket approaching 鈥� I sounded the alarms. The Doodlebug engine stopped and where it landed was anybody鈥檚 guess! Explosion came as it hit the ground at Dollis Hill I believe. We had confirmation when our Manager did not return from lunch as he was in his house which had been hit.

Whilst I was living at Walmington Fold in Woodside Park, I had a very near miss. About 1941, without any warning that I can remember, I heard the whistle of falling bombs. My youngest brother and I dived under the dining room table, mother was in the kitchen, father was somewhere in the hall. Then came a colossal bang and it seemed that the world was alight. The bomb had entered the road right outside our house and continued at an angle almost under the houses and exploded back, fortunately up the hole, igniting the fractured gas main which was sticking up at an angle, illuminating the damage. My elder brother coming down Fursby Avenue from West Finchley Station, home on leave from the RAF, was having kittens!

He had heard the plane, the bombs and seen the fire right where he was heading home! Fortunately the house, which had been built by Leyland Construction Company, stood the blast well and nobody was hurt. However the house had twisted slightly on the damp course and had to be demolished 鈥� it was subsequently rebuilt after the war. The family moved back into it on completion. As my cousin lived a little way down the road we were thankful that she gave us temporary accommodation until we were re-housed in requisitioned properly in the road opposite 鈥� Chanctonbury Way.

After the war and de-requisitioning we were given temporary accommodation in Holders Hill Drive whilst our house was being rebuilt. I, about this time, 1947, was called up to join the RAF but that鈥檚 another story.

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