大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Karen Joyce from Westree Learning Centre and has been added to the website on behalf of Marion Law with her permission and they fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When war broke out we lived in a little terraced house with an outside loo in Crystal Palace. I was only six, and my sister was 5 and we also had a new born baby sister who was so small she had a whole container to lie In, instead of a gas mask.

I remember the bombs falling and running out to collect bits of shrapnel, the houses around us were destroyed by bombs and neighbours killed. Buses were hit by bombs and totally blown to bits. We would visit a church in West Norwood to stay the night as we didn鈥檛 have a shelter at home. We slept on racks which were used for funerals. One night a bomb dropped on the cemetery opposite the church, and some of us fell off of our bunks. When we went outside and looked half of the cemetery had gone and all we could see was smoke.

After a while we were evacuated to Worthing, but bombs were found on the beach so we were brought back and then sent up to Manchester. We stayed with another family and were given bare essentials to survive on. Me and my sisters attended school there and came back to Crystal Palace after about 3 years.

When we got back we found that our house had been blown up and then broken into and all our toys had been stolen. As a child this was all I was worried about! We were given another house to live in which had it鈥檚 own shelter so we didn鈥檛 have to sleep in the church anymore. We stayed in this house until the end of the war. My father returned home as he had been away fighting in the war, which was nice, although my little sister didn鈥檛 know who he was!

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