大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Hilary Ross of the Chineham Learning Centre on behalf of Donald James Squibb and has been added to the site with his permission. The author understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

In 1939 I was 4陆yrs old and living in Peckham Rye London SE15 with my mother and grandmother. In late 1939 I was taken by my grandmother to relatives in Yorkshire. This didn鈥檛 last long as my grandmother didn鈥檛 get on with her relatives and decided that she would rather face Hitlers bombs than stay there. So we returned to Peckham in 1940. I can remember gas masks being issued and an Anderson shelter was provided in the garden for my familys use. This included my aunt who lived in the flat above us.

The blitz is memories of every night spent in the shelter with bombs dropping around us, the nearest about 40ft away, and an oil bomb 100yards down the road We had blankets and candles in the shelter and thermos flasks to keep us going during the night. My aunt told me that she spent the night looking after me as my mother went straight to sleep . In the morning we crept out to see if our house was still standing. Throughout the war the only damage suffered was an interior wall that fell over and regular window damage. I can remember going outside after the raids and searching for pieces of shrapnel I still have a piece today that I kept as a souvenir.- Air raids also took place during the day the most memorable incident was after an air raid my grandmother and I were in our living room when we spotted a German fighter plane coming straight towards us , we immediately dived under the dining table. Luckily the plane didn鈥檛 fire at us but zoomed over the house at very low level.

At various times throughout the war I can remember going to feeding stations for meals because we had lost our gas, electricity and water supplies. My mother who worked in the City still managed to go to work most of the time, while my grandmother looked after me. My aunt who鈥檚 husband was in the army and had no children worked for the war effort as a welder in factory in the Old Kent Road .

Between 1940 and 1943 I spent very little time at school due to the never ending air raids and their after effects. I was told by my mother later that schools were often taken over for government purposes at various times.

I vividly remember the arrival of the Doodle Bugs and during the day watching them flying over in the distance. The nearest Doodle Bug to our house fell about 200yds away luckily for us some three story houses protected us from most of the blast.

I can remember in the early part of the war barrage balloons being flown on Peckham Rye common, and pigs being reared just outside the park opposite the tea room. Towards the end of the war also on the common was a small Italian prisoner of war camp.

In 1944 with arrival of the V2 rockets my mother decided that London was becoming too dangerous and decided to send me to relatives in Devon. I was taken to my mothers cousin near Newton Abbot where I lived with the family and went to school locally until June 1945.

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