大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Aysha Francis from The Folkestone School for Girls and has been added to the website on behalf of Leslie Spencer with his permission and he fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

In 1939 I was 12 years old. I lived in North London. There was little signs of a war in that year.
My memories of the war start on September 7th 1940. My parents decided to go
shopping and I didn鈥檛 want to go. After I had lunch I heard some activity which I took
to be machine gun fire and explosions. Going out into the back garden I looked up
into the sky and there was an incredible sight which I now understand was 350
German bombers accompanied by 600 German fighter planes. Amongst these
were Spitfires and Hurricanes. I could see bombs coming down, the odd planes on fire and some aircrew bailing out on parachutes. I sat on a railway embankment at the back of my garden and watched this oblivious to the possible dangers that could occur! This went on for a hours until my parents arrived and decided I should go back into the house. The bombers were attempting to erase the London docks. This was my first experience of bombing. No air raid warning was given.
That night the bombers returned and this as I now understand was the beginning of the London Blitz. My parents and I sheltered in the coal cellar as the Anderson shelter in the garden was permanently flooded. We went into the cellar when we thought it necessary and this continued for approximately two months being bombed every night.

London victims

During December there was a lull in raids on London and we thought that even the Germans would take a Christmas holiday and wouldn鈥檛 come. December 29th we went to visit my aunts who lived near the city to have a New Year鈥檚 party and we stayed on the 5th floor of a block of flats. During this night the Germans again attacked London with a mixture of incendiary and high explosive bombs. We did not hear the bomb that hit us but there was a colossal explosion. After gathering ourselves together I got to the door of the flat and I could see through the external wall that the block of flats next to us had been demolished. We went down the stairs and stood all night in the flat entrance while the rescue party and the ARP brought through the injured.
In the morning I managed to get up the stairs to gather our belongings. On looking through one of the windows I was astounded to see that the dead were being brought to the rear of the flats and placed in sacks. A sight I shall never forget.
In May 1941 my father had acquired a cup final tickets for a war time cup final. The night before we were due to go a bomb hit the house opposite us and completely demolishing it and killing an elderly lady. The front of our house was partly demolished and on going out into the road it was as if the mud from the Somme had been dropped onto the road. I heard that another bomb had dropped about 300 yards away where my friend lived so I went down immediately as I was concerned. I found that he was all alright but our mutual friend and scout nearby, had been killed, the only one in the family all the rest survived. The scouts maintained an all-night vigil and guard of honour at his funeral. These memories I shall never ever forget.

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