大象传媒

I think it was in the summer of 1941 or 1942, so I would have been eight or nine and a half. My father was not with us, except for occasional weekends, as he had been sent to work in Watford in a factory called Novobax - Direction of Labour. When I was asked at school what my father did, all I could say was he worked at Novobax, as he never spoke about what he actually did. However I now have a story he wrote, I assume based on his experiences there.

The particular night I have in mind there was quite a bad air raid, and my two older sisters and my two younger brothers were huddled under the dining room table, quite, or rather very, frightened. The awful hum of the enemy aeroplanes, the thud of bombs - and then the explosions.

At last came the welcome sound of the All Clear.

However, that was not the last of that particular raid. Air Raid Wardens visited all the houses within a three hundred yard radius of a house in Seaforth Gardens - everyone must leave, take what we could and go.

Alot of people went to the local Church of England, and we were there for a few nights. As far as I can remember the children slept on made up beds on the floor, and the adults on the pews.

The vicar's wife supervised the food, and I cannot remember much about that - I think we were served stew from huge metal tubs.

The vicar's wife also bathed us in the vicarage bath, (not altogether, two at a time) the largest and oldest bath I had ever seen.

After a few days people were billeted on strangers, or went to friends or relations. We were sent to a very kind woman, who had a husband and a grown up son.

Suddenly, she had another woman, three girls and two boys, plus a boisterous puppy! Somewhere there is a photograph of us all at her back door - our family, not hers.

Whilst we were away first my aunt, who lived in Tolworth, paid us a visit - but in our own home, not our temporary quarters. How she evaded the cordon I do not know.

When we eventually went back home my mother found a note :

"Dear Louie,

Why have you left all your doors and windows open while you were out -you could have had burglars? So I have closed them for you. Love, Ada"

This particular aunt had the misfortune to be bombed out of two different homes, luckily no-one was injured.

The next visitor was my father, who also evaded the cordon. Of course, he found everything shut up, so did not know what to think. However he met a warden, and as far as I can remember also found us, and stayed overnight before going back to Watford.

What I find strange is that, although mostly I have good clear memories of my childhood, and can recall parts of the stay in the church, I can remember nothing at all about the stay at Mrs -.

Of course, we went to school, except my youngest brother who was too young.

At school we spent a great deal of time in the shelters during the blitz, which was fun, except for the dread of the bombs. Again the awful hum of the enemy aeroplanes, the sound of the bombs, followed by explosions.

I do not know how long we were away from home.

Eventually we were told the bomb which had landed in Seaforth Gardens, but not exploded, was a dud.

So we went home.

*-*-*-*-*-

P.S. Imagine the state of our doors and windows, if the bomb had gone off!!!!!

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.