大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the site by the 大象传媒's Peoples War Team in the East Midlands with Margaret Roughtons permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The article was collated and written by a pupil at Mortimer Wilson School, Alfreton as part of a Peoples war Project."

When the war started I was 7 years old and lived in a village called Duckmanton. The air raid sirens would sometimes be heard at night and German planes could be heard overhead on their way to bomb Sheffield.

In December 1941 late on Sunday night we heard the air raid siren and as usual we climbed out of bed, got dressed and while we had a cup of tea a German plane flew over the house. It was very noisy and seemed to be flying low, suddenly there was a loud explosion - the doors and windows shook with the blast, we were very frightened. The next morning we learned that our school had been bombed and as it was a wooden built school it was almost burnt to the ground. The plane was looking for Stavely Chemical Works two miles away but had missed the target and hit our school instead. A lot of houses near the school were damaged. We were worried about losing our school but within a few weeks were found temporary classrooms. The infants were taken to the methodist chapel, while we juniors had to use rooms in the local public house, it was quite an adventure.

As it was war time, building supplies were in short supply and it was two years before we had a new school built. It was very nice with all new furniture and new books.

For more pictures of the bomb blast click on: A4436255

and A4436110

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