大象传媒

2. Bombing Run

Our village possessed the second tallest Windmill in the country which proved a good observation point for the A.R.P. They did, with difficulty, manage to cut out another observation window. The walls were a good 3ft wide. I lived alongside the Windmill and we regularly used the ground floor as an air-raid shelter. If we did not have time to get to the mill, we sheltered under our large mahogany dining table and the space under the piano, prior to having a shared Anderson Shelter with the neighbours.

We were under the flight path for bombing raids on Coventry. On the night of the big blitz, wave after wave of German bombers went over. You could instantly tell the sound of the German planes; they made a droning sound compared to the constant tone of British and U.S. planes. The sky over Coventry was orange that evening even though it was 40 miles away. We had to be very careful when the German planes were on their way home after the raid. One chink of light and they would drop any bombs they had left. We were very lucky in that two bombs dropped alongside a farmhouse did not detonate and a Land Mine was dropped near some cottages about a mile away when an occupant opened a door but that did not detonate either. It shook our bungalow. The evacuee Joan came rushing out of the bathroom with her knickers round her ankles!

The danger of bombing went on very late into the war. In my diary 1945 鈥� January 3rd. 鈥淲arning went while on my way to music lessons. A Flying Bomb dropped.鈥� And, on 4th March 鈥� Siren went again 鈥� another Jerry.鈥�
This story was submitted to the 鈥淧eoples War Site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of JUNE GOODWIN and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site

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