大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education鈥檚 reminiscence team on behalf of June Whittle and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I remember not being able to go to school until the 鈥榓ll clear鈥� went after an air raid. If the siren went while we were at school we went down the school shelter, taking our gas masks with us. I always felt like I was suffocating in my gas mask. We would have a sing-song and do poetry recitals which took our minds off the sir raids.

We had a shelter in the garden at home and were down there most nights. There were bunks where me and my younger sister slept. It had a damp and musty smell and was cold. I would rather have stayed indoors in my bed!

During the Blitz, incendiary bombs landed on our roof, but they rolled off. One landed in the middle of the plants in the garden, splitting them in two. Three roads up and opposite us some of the houses were flattened. An Aunt came to live with us from London. She had a little girl and was a nurse. Eventually she got a house near Aylsham Road in Norwich. Mother went up there one night and had terrible trouble getting there because of all the fires on the way. Mt Aunt鈥檚 house had been affected by the blast but she had managed to crawl downstairs with the baby and take shelter in the Morrison.

My mother took me to my Grandparents in Surlingham, where I stayed with them in their thatched cottage. From Surlingham we could watch the air raids in Norwich in safety. It was a beautiful sight, but very frightening.

I used to have to go to Magdalen Street in Norwich to queue up at the butcher鈥檚 and I was terrified whenever there was an air raid on. One day I鈥檇 been down to the shop and when I came back there were some young children playing by the sand outside the shelter in the street. A German plane came over and started machine-gunning the children. I threw my bike down and threw myself on top of them to protect them. I was about thirteen or fourteen at the time. Afterwards I couldn鈥檛 believe I鈥檇 been that brave. I suppose it was just instinct.

My sister came home from the playing field near Mousehold Heath one day when the siren went and told us she had seen a plane 鈥渄ropping some black eggs鈥�. This was her understanding of seeing bombs dropped from a plane.

Once I was in the city near the cathedral and there was an air raid so I went down a public shelter with a school friend. I also remember Curls getting bombed and it leaving a huge crater.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.