大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Pennie Hedge, a volunteer from 大象传媒 London, on behalf of Barbara Smith, and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Smith fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was nine years of age when the war started. My father had died, my brother was away in the RAF, and our school was being evacuated. My mother said to me 鈥渨ould you like to be evacuated with the school, Barbara, or would you like to stay with me? But if you do, you鈥檒l have to be in the air raid shelter every night.鈥� So I said, 鈥淣o, I鈥檇 rather be with you.鈥� My aunty came to live with us. And every night we went off to the air raid shelter.

As a teenager, I went to five different schools because each one got bombed or damaged in turn. One had an incendiary bomb, another had some other bomb damage. We鈥檇 get a letter saying the school is being closed for the next few weeks, get the following books, do some lessons at home, and we鈥檒l write to you again when another school nearby opens. This was South East London. So I went to five different schools from 9 to 16 陆, but the war had ended by then.

One Saturday morning I was visiting a friend near my home. As I arrived at her door, a V2 fell. I said to her, 鈥淚 must hurry home, that was a V2.鈥� It had fallen at the bottom of my road on the Woolworths store in New Cross. As I hurried home I saw many people who were injured, and others were dead and lying on the pavements and in the road. Ambulances and fire engines were parked nearby, attending to the injured and dying. The air was filled with grit and dust. There was a huge crater on the Woolworth site where the V2 had fallen.

The first four houses in my road were demolished. We were number 9 and my house was badly damaged, a four storey Victorian house, but it was still standing. The tall flight of front steps were damaged, windows fallen out, ceilings down, furniture damaged. How thankful I was that my family was alive and only slightly injured. Unfortunately the dog was missing. She had run out when the V2 fell.

I had been at the Woolworths store visiting every Saturday morning with a friend, but that particular Saturday, I鈥檓 glad to say that I hadn鈥檛 gone. How thankful I was for God鈥檚 protection of me and my family. I recalled the verses that I had been learning at school in scripture lesson just a week previously, from psalm 91 verses 1-7
鈥淗e that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust鈥�.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.鈥�
How this reminded me of the air raids each night.

At first they said that our house was condemned, and we had to go to a rest shelter for four or five days, but then we went back. They put black stuff over the windows, repaired the steps, and we got dockets to buy new furniture. Then I got another letter and I went to another school.

The following year, I was going to school at Peckham, and the school was machine gunned by enemy planes flying over. All the windows had tiny holes in. But we all rushed down to the shelter and not one child was injured. It was a marvellous escape, from all those things.

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