大象传媒

I was six years old when the second world war started. We lived in Romford ,which was under the flight path of the German bombers during the blitz. The Anderson shelter in the back garden was just beg enough to house two children's bunks and four adult bunks. We were a family of four girls, one boy younger than me and two parents. We three younger girls and brother were sent down the shelter before thesirens started. We could hear them getting closer and closer from the last one as each area in turn sounded out the warning of an air raid. Air raids happened in daylight hours as well as after dark. Search lights would criss cross the sky and the ack ack guns seemed never ending. The drone of enemy aircraft engines as well as the din of exploding bombs was terrific. I was terrified for most of the time and my little brother had his 'luggy shawl' to help cut out some of the din. When bombers got nearer to our house my mother and eldest sister would come down to the shelter. If my father was on leave he too,but but I don't remember him being at home much.
There was no lighting in the shelter except what you could take such as candles, so unless we were having our supper of a drink of milk we were in darkness which only made everything feel worse. We must have learned how to get to sleep in it all as a land mine fell wuite near to us but I didn't hear it explode.
In the morning wee would come out of the shelter and collect shrapnell from the garden. It was jagged and shiny bright but soon rusted. We would look at the house to see if it was still standing - luckily it was. The nearest bombed out house to us was just round the corner, about two hundred yards away, the girl who lived there of about my age called Vera Carter was killed.
We would arrive at school only to find the all-clear had not sounded so we were sent down the long brick built shelters , built on the school playing fields

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