大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War web site by Ron Steer, of 大象传媒 South East Today, on behalf of Mrs Doreen Harpum and has been added to the site with his/her permission. Mrs Harpum fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Shorne was a typically quiet Kentish country village near Gravesend. At that time it was quite a long journey to get to London.
It was near the beginning of the war and I was about seven or eight years old. We used to sleep in the Morrison shelter in our living room. As in many houses it was also used as a table.
One night a doodlebug fell nearby in Woodlands Lane. It was a country road with not very many buildings; however, among them there were two large army huts, one used for stores and the other to billet about twenty men. The doodlebug missed the store and hit the hut accommodating the men, killing them all. It was near enough for the blast to blow our back door open and blow out some of our windows.
Being a child, and unaware of the significance of all that was happening, I was very calm about it all. The next day however, I remember that the tragedy of what had happened down the lane was the talk of the village.

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