大象传媒

鈥淭his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Terry Cleaver of 大象传媒 Kent and has been added to the website on behalf of Mrs Jennifer A Purvis with her permission and they fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

It was a warm and sunny evening in September 1944 at Pett鈥檚 Wood. I was aged 8 and my mother, brother and I had just returned a few days before from my grandparents who lived in Seaton, Devon. I had been playing with my friend Audrey Garland and had come back for our meal in the evening. My mother had laid down the dining room table and my father had just returned from work and was upstairs changing.

The air raid siren had gone, my mother had gone into the Morrison shelter, which was in the dining room, but my brother and I were sitting in the armchairs either side of the mantelpiece. We were very excited, as our mother had bought us new shoes, my brother football boots and black school shoes for me. My mother must have heard this noise and she called to us to get into the shelter. My brother managed, but I got halfway and saw the doodlebug coming straight for the French windows. My mother realised what was happening and she managed to pull me into the shelter, but unfortunately my legs and lower body were outside. The doodlebug turned at the last minute and fell into the garden next door.

The shelter blew up to the ceiling and then came down and trapped my feet underneath and glass from upstairs badly injured my legs. My mother screamed out 鈥淲hat are we going to do without Dad.鈥� Soon after my father walked in the room having struggled to get out of the toilet. My father and the local dentist tried to lift the shelter off my feet but it was too heavy for them, so they had to wait for the fire brigade which wasn鈥檛 that long, as they had been following this doodlebug from Orpington.

Having removed the shelter, the situation was assessed and we all had to go to the nearest first aid post. My father and mother weren鈥檛 injured but they suspected that my brother had glass in his eyes and I definitely had to go to hospital.

My father came with my brother and myself to Farnborough Hospital in a grey open-ended fire engine, which was quite scary.

I had to have an operation to remove glass from my legs and my brother had to have his eyes looked at. My father told me that I was going to be given smelling salts and that would send me to sleep. I knew what smelling salts were as my mother had bouts of fainting. I was very frightened when I was put on a table and all these men came around and they put a mask over my face. I struggled and screamed as they all started to go round and round.

My father then had to walk home in the pitch dark back to Petts Wood. Great friends of my parents put them up for a few days and my mother went grey almost overnight and her hair stood up on end for two weeks. Meanwhile at the house, where the whole back of the house come out, everything was put out on the garden under a tarpaulin. We had nice oak fireplaces in the lounge and dining room and somebody helped themselves to those plus various things disappeared from the contents on the front lawn. My parents lost a lot of their china and glass and the furniture was pitted with glass.

My brother was only in hospital for a few days, but I had to stay in for a month and in those days my parents weren鈥檛 allowed to visit.

We were re-housed in Petts Wood and had to share a house with another family. My mother had a bit of trouble with my brother and me, as every time a plane went over we became very frightened. After a few years we returned to our repaired house, painted in cream emulsion with battleship grey paintwork.

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