大象传媒

As a child I lived in a bungalow in Abbots Leigh

When I was about 11 years old, I was out in the garden with my family, my father was on his allotment nearby, when we heard a plane coming in very low. My father shouted at us to lie on the floor. The plane showered the garden with bullets.
After it passed over we could see the trail of bullett marks all along the flower bed.
Everyone was alright.
The same plane was later shot down over Failand

One night - several months later, we heard a plane going over - there were 14 people in the house at the time and there was no time to get to the air raid shelter. My father said we should all gather in a group in the corner of the room.

The bomb fell and the whole bungalow was destroyed except for the corner of the room where we were all standing.

No one was hurt. As we tried to pick our way out of the shattered bungalow - my mother fell through the damaged verandah and hurt her leg very badly - but they put a touniquet on it and she survived.
The bombed had made a diret hit on the bomb shelter.

We had a smallholding and the sheep and cows and livestock were all killed.

We wondered whether Ham Green Hospital had been the target as we lived near there.

For a time we lived with friends nearby and then we lived in Cleeve - outside of Bristol for the rest of the war. Ten of us lived in one room for about 2 years. We waited for the war to finish so my family could rebuild the bungalow and we could go home.

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