大象传媒

Dear Mother and Ada,

I have just got you a letter sent off. Just so that you would get it on Sat. I know there's not much in it but it would make it easier for the weekend. Dad wrote the letter in hospital and hadn't got it posted.
Well here is the truth that you are so anxious to know about. When the bomb came down, Dad and I were in the shelter, as it was a very noisy night for guns and planes and the coal oil plant at the I.C.I. broke out on fire and attracted all the Jerry鈥檚 for miles around and one passing dropped his bomb! It fell about 2am absolutely a direct hit on about Fishers and young Mrs Laws or Laws and Bainbridge鈥檚 and Parkes houses - judging by the hole in the ground, then exploded about 7 minutes later. It is said to be one of the largest been dropped in the country about a 3,000Ib one - well, when it came down all was quiet immediately after and dad went out and I followed! However dad saw Mrs Ord on her step and went to talk to her and I stayed on our back yard step. We were asking her to come into our shelter when it went off. It was a terrific explosion and was heard at Trenholme Bar even and they thought that the whole synthetic had blown up. Yet honestly I never heard it! They say the nearer you are the less you hear when one explodes and Mr Clarke Chemist suggests I fainted for a while! Or that when I fell I was knocked unconscious for a moment or two, but im sure neither happened!

Well it went off and knocked me into the corner of the yard where Dad had his rakes etc not far but far enough! I fell sort of face down and on my knees against the two walls (Mrs Coates' wall and our shelter wall!) There was just room for me to get my hands up to my head to save stuff coming direct on to my head. Luckily I had Brooke鈥檚 thick gloves on and that saved my hands. My brown velvet hat was blown away and also my good thick slippers (I afterwards found one in the street and one in the Yard! and my hat in the arch but its too bad to use!) I laid there till all the rubbish had stopped coming down, bricks, tiles and slates all sorts of stuff- I鈥檝e heard of raining cats and dogs but this was house and glory only knows what! When it had stopped and I couldn鈥檛 see hardly any thing I got up and found I had no slippers on but made my way over the rubbish to the shelter by the feel of the shelter wall. I felt for the shed but it was all down! When I got into the shelter I had my old brown shoes in there luckily so I put them on the best I could as the curtain and rod were blown down and candle out! I had my flash though in my pocket. Then I lit the candle and risked it showing out and went to find Dad. He had been blown from Mr Ord's yard door down to between Mrs Coates' and ours and was leaning up against the wall moaning. I couldn鈥檛 see him at first and naturally ran up to Mrs Ords and shouted,"Dad where are you?" and he replied "Here". I couldn鈥檛 see him and oh what a lot of rubbish about. I didn鈥檛 then know what had been hit. I couldn鈥檛 see! I went by the sound of his voice and found him. He said "I cant walk" so I said "get on my back" and I carried him as far as the drain on my hands and feet. He was too heavy for me and the rubbish was so uneven to walk on. When I got as far as the drain of course the slates and wood from the housetop were there and I had a sort of clear passage to help him in. We got into the shelter and I put him those two matting filled cushions to sort of lie on and put the deed box and the two velvet cushions for a pillow (they were in the shelter) and then I thought of the brandy.

So the air was clearing a bit by then and I I went into the scullery (door blown of its hinges) and curtains and pans galore on the floor! I got into the kitchen and thought I knew my way across the kitchen but I didn鈥檛 bargain that the ceiling was on the floor and the chairs all tipped up and I went crashing over Dads chair by the table. Lumps of ceiling were still dropping so I picked myself up and made off into the scullery for a tin hat! One of those enamelled pans served beautifully and fitted lovely! Back into the kitchen lands my feet into a claggy mess and popped my flash on, all black outs were blown across to the wall and pinned onto the wallpaper with glass from the window! Also I鈥檓 sorry to say into the sofa back. Planes and guns were still about so I had to keep my light out but I discovered I鈥檇 stood in baking powder which had been knocked out of the cupboard and the water from the tank upstairs had run through and was beginning to make it fizzy! So finally I got up to the cupboard for the brandy and gosh it wasn鈥檛 there! Then I remembered I鈥檇 made you take it, as we didn鈥檛 want it!! So I collected the little new pan off the table and went into the shelter again.

I had just filled the Lucozade bottles with clean water that day so I put some onto the stove for some tea. Then I got dad and leaned up on my arm and got him to rinse his mouth out with clean water and spit it out two or three times. Then I bathed his head in two places (horrible ones) and his left eyebrow was cut. I spent a while doing that and it was bleeding a lot. I took his shoes off and saw his ankle (left) was out of joint, his leg came down and his foot seemed to have jumped of his leg. It was swelling badly. So I made some tea (all the time the guns were bad but I had not to notice that.) I felt shaky myself too but Dad was worse and I had to keep going. I got us some tea, wishy-washy stuff too much milk I don鈥檛 believe the water can have been boiling either and not much tea. Oh I'd had to make a second journey into the kitchen for the half 1b store tea, as I couldn鈥檛 find the tea caddy! Then I鈥檇 got our tea over and went into the kitchen for your flash that I鈥檇 remembered had been on the kitchen dresser since you'd been away (my own had given out.)

While I was in the kitchen there was such a row and banging at the back door and heard the wardens shouting, "Put that light out!" I said there wasn鈥檛 one on! And they were shouting at the front room window that it was in the front room! I couldn鈥檛 open the front door as the key was blown out! I couldn鈥檛 open the sitting room door either, as chairs and shutters were all in the way. I saw at a glance that two of the shutters were broken in half, the right hand side one and the centre one and the blast had blown the top of Ada's little lantern and put the light on! I couldn鈥檛 find the switch to put it off and so I carried it through the remains of the house and banged the bulb on the gas stove and broke it. Then I went back and told the warden鈥檚 dad was injured and they passed the news onto the first aid men and were soon round in the yard with a stretcher. They wanted to know his name, age and address which was fastened to his coat lapel. They took him to a first aid post behind Wesleyan Chapel opposite Mrs Collier's who has the barking dog. I didn鈥檛 go with him but I stayed behind. I didn鈥檛 know what to do as it was dark still and only about quarter to three, so I sat and thank hard. Then I decided I better stop the water coming through. So I risked my flash a small light and found my way upstairs which were very firm, but wet and plastery. The cold tank had come down and burst the hot one and all the water was pouring out of the ball tap into the tank and overflowing onto the floor. So I took the mat up and a lump of stick and propped the tap up with and turned it off at the sink and lavatory. The electricity was off when we went out so I turned the gas off for safety. Then I looked around upstairs. We have no bedroom ceilings at all and no roof of any description - just the sky! So I collected the clocks, Ada's and Dad's and the one Aunty lent me and put them in the shelter and did a bit of looking around.

About 3.30 I decided I ought to go and see about Dad and so went along, everybody nurses etc seemed very amused at my pan hat which I'd forgotten about and the muck on me. Mr Woolley was in the first aid post talking to casualties and Dad and Liam Bainbridge were on strechers getting treated. There was a hue and cry for Mrs Wilson who every one thought must be killed as she hadnt been heard of so I went back to the wreckage of Pine street to find her. No one knew where she was so I went through all the houses up there to find her. I got into the wrong house first and found it was Hardy's when I got through into the yard as their dog was sitting scared under the shelter seat! Then I got the wrong house again and went through the Grants and found Miss Picken in the shelter shaken but alright. Peacocks house and Wilsons and Grants have been directly opposite the bomb. Luckily all Peacocks were well away at Scarborough but their house is done and most of their furniture. You can stand in the front of the street outside Peacocks window and look right through into the far side of Benson street which is almost all down. At last I got to the Wilson house, same time as two APR men. We soon smelt gas. I being first into the house went into the scullery and found it was coming from the gas stove which had a pipe blown away so I plugged it with my hand until they made a wooden plug and turned it off when they moved the wreckage and got to the meter. My tin hat was still in use.

Then I went out the back way and it was about 4 o'clock and just beggining to get light enough to see nicely. I saw the rescue squad at work and A.R.P. and Police and what a hole! I think they said 25 feet or was it 25 yards? But you could get a house in it and about 2 or 3 across the top. I had a word or two with the men and discovered that about where I stood there should have been another shelter so men came to measure up and check over and discovered that Mr Lawes (young one) shelter had been blown in half and the top lifted will all the concrete intact into the back street! So I stayed and helped move bricks and hold lumps of wood. When I had gone they had finished I heard they had found two dead people under but I dont remember who they said it was. The "all clear" went at 4.30.

Well by this time it was about quater to five and getting nicely light so I went back to home that was and started clearing up. The front door was still locked so no one could get in and I began clearing the yard as it was too dark indoors. I used the coal shovel and shovelled a path up as far as the drain but the slates were a foot thick and I couldnt budge them so I left them. While I was clearing by the shed a man came into the yard and I said "Hello, who are you?" and he said "a Police Officer" I said "You dont look like one" because he had a navy suit on and a red and blue scarf on. He said "No I've just got up" and proceeded into the house so I said, "Oh you needen't go into the house, I can manage thank you" and got between him and the door and he went off! I looked out as he was going and there were 3 other men all of whom looked fishy hanging round Whitfields'(41) door. They couldnt get in as it had blown the wood roof into the yard. But I'm sure they are the sort of men who go round pinching or offering to help salvage and cart it all off and it is never seen again! Anyway he didnt argue or insist, just went so it looks fishy to me. So I just got the stair carpet up and the passage lino and carpet out of the dirt and wet and got Harold Coates help me with the sitting room carpet to take it bodily out into the front street with all the plaster on it and broken pots and dumped them in the ditch! We shook the worst out of it and then helped with the new one upstairs which was getting wet. We did the same to that then.

It got to a quarter to 8. I took my pan hat off and went down to the First Aid Post again to see Pa but he had gone to hospital along with Mr Blakey, Mr Swithenbank, Elsie Bainbridge and Mrs Whipp. By that time it was about a quarter to eight and I (oh I've said that!) so I stayed at the First Aid Post in my muck and glory and sat round a fire with Allinson's housekeeper, Minnie and Mrs Ord, both with cut and bandaged heads. Charlie Ord was in bed and was cut, hands and head bandaged Mr Butcher had a cut head and a cut thumb which he didn't like to see as the blood kept coming through the bandage!! Mr Whip was laid on a stretcher with a broken shoulder and Lilian Bainbridge (Elsie's sister I believe) was on a stretcher covered in blood from a very badly cut head. We stayed there and they sent some food up for us from the Rest Centre at Open Air Schools, sandwiches and marmalade and bread. Then I discovered my knee had been bleeding so the nurses insisted I had the places dressed. I had my legs and feet washed to see where the cuts were. Plenty of small cuts and scratches and now plenty of bruises are showing so they said I'd better be put on the casualty list of slightly injured so I could claim compensation if I got worse!! I have a bruise on my right arm about 2 or 3 inches by 2 inches but it's not bad. I had a bruise on the left side of my head which I felt when I combed it and a place between my shoulder blades which something heavy landed there but it's only come up in a big bruise. Well. after breakfast!! at the First Aid Post I had a good wash there 3 times before I began to look clean!! And oh how my face smarted with the muck and lime dust. I just spent the rest of the day clearing up and salvaging things and at about 11am sent a telegram to Charlie to tell him the news. Then I had to go to the Maison-de-Danse in Yarm Road to give in particulars and see officials and oh such a carry on. Then I went up to the hospital to see dad. Then I went back to the house. Oh I telephoned to Trenholme Bar and told them. The police and air force and special army police and Home Guard took turns in guarding the entries to the streets so no pilfering went on.

(The continuation of this story can be found in a seperate entry)

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