大象传媒

This story was submitted to the people's war site by Stacey Flanagan and has been added to the website on behalf of David Bushnell with his permission and they fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

Soon after the declaration of war my elder sister, Betty and I were evacuated from our Wimbledon home to Byfleet, Surrey with most of our school friends. I was about 10 years old at the time.
Living in a country area was a novel experience for us "townies" but since our new temporary home was next to the Vickers-Armstrong factory where the Wellington bombers were being built, it now seems a strange location for evacuees.
We soon became homesick and after two months or so, since there had been none of the expected air attacks we both returned home to Milner Road.
The family had an Anderson air raid shelter in the garden, which for some months was not required until one afternoon the air raid sirens sounded.
My mother and I had just reached the entrance when we heard a series of explosions and since we had been told that a battery of anti-aircraft guns sited at least two miles away would shake the area if fired, we sat in the shelter thinking all was well, until the "all clear" sounded.
When we emerged most of the house windows were shattered and what we took to be smoke was billowing out. This was in fact plaster dust from the ceilings which had fallen.
The explosions were not from the guns, but bombs being jettisoned from a German plane chased by our fighters during one of the many attacks on the Kent and Surrey airfields.
Of six bombs dropped, four fell along our road. The one which damaged our home had hit an electricity substation next-door to us. Fortunately no serious injuries were caused by these bombs, but the two that fell further away did cause fatalities. The bomber was shot down.
Because of the damage to the house and the beginning of night raids, my mother, grandfather, sister and myself had to sleep on the underground railway station platform each night for a while, but that's another story!

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