大象传媒

In 1944 (I think it was the beginning of the year)the sirens, I always remember the sirens warning you there was an air raid...I was down in a shelter which was a converted basement under a shop with one of my friends, Mr Kelly. We used to use it regularly. There was no one down it but us two. We came up the iron ladder to the pavement outside the shop. The bomb dropped while we were in the shelter because we could see all the dust flying down the cracks and the cellar shook. We just heard an explosion. BANG! This was in the daytime, about lunchtime, I think, my sisters and brothers were at work. We thought "We're all right", and got out. People were rushing round saying " There's been a bomb dropped at Colmore Cross!" You didn't ask them. People told you. I thought, "That's where we live!" I ran round there to Colmore Cross and when I got there there were lots of people there - Policemen, Fire Brigade, and I heard ringing bells. I could hear them before I got there. When I got there, I tried to get to Colemore Cross Shelter because I knew my mother was down there. She always used that shelter and whoever was at home. A Policeman said to me," Where are you going Sunny Jim?" I think I tried to crawl through his legs. He said "You can't go over there!" I said, "But my mother's down in that shelter!" I think I was crying. I don't remember any more than that, except that it was a direct hit on the shelter. I think I saw the fins of the bomb. One man, the one who owned the shop,died in that bombing. I think my mother was down that shelter. Then Peggy (my sister) came along and we all met up. Then we went on a bus or tram; me being dragged past Woolworths by the hand by my mother because I was trying to pick up the things that had fallen out of the window display, to my father's brother. We stayed with him in Tooting.

Leonard Braden was one of 10 children of market traders and the youngest boy. He was 4 when the war started and his mother kept the 3 of her youngest children with her during the war. ( the elder ones were evacuated or at work) In the beginning of 1944 he was 8, but was not at school. He was often free to roam the streets during the day. Apart from bombs, there was little danger, because there were no cars about. They did not have a garden, so there was no Anderson Shelter,as the plot they did have was too small. They lived at 7 Colmore Cross, Balham. The shelter was opposite the house on the same side as 3 shops. The family eventually ended up in Towster, near Silverstone.

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