´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Suffolk Action Desk on behalf of Mr. Keith Gooch and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr. Gooch fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

My Mothers Story: Mrs. Emma Gooch (1901-1980) — she heard the sirens go, at the same time she could hear the guns firing and a plane above. Mother quickly took me out of my cot (I was six months old). In panic as now she could hear the whistling of a bomb coming down, threw dad’s big army grey coat over my two sisters, aged 13 and 5 years old, as they sat on a settee. Then, before she could dive under the table for cover she froze, standing back to the wall beside the window holding me tightly in her arms. The bomb then exploded approximately100 yards away from the back of our house. The window beside which my mother stood holding me, was blow in from the resulting blast, showering the glass over my sisters, who were both saved from any injury by the thickness of dad’s grey coat. The main force took most of the glass flying under the table. It was lucky that my mother froze by the window and had not had time to find shelter under the table. One of the old type large picture frame which was hanging above my cot fell from the wall, smashing the cot.

Luckily my mother, my two sisters and myself were fortunate to escape without any injuries.

Background information: We were living in the pub called the Boar’s Head, where the flats in Austin Street now stand, at the end of the older terrace houses. The building at the back of the house took a lot of the blast from the bomb. All the windows at the back of the house were blow in. Most of the tiles on that side of the house were also blow off.

It being a working pub in which we were living, resulted in all the beer bottles and glass in the bar areas being thrown off the shelves and smashing onto the floor, causing considerable damage and mess.

As records now show, the last bomb to hit Britain in WW2 fell in Ipswich in March 1945, hitting a house at the bottom ed of Seymour Road, unfortunately killing several American servicemen. Our pub, the Boars Head, was about 100 yards back onto the bottom end of Seymour Road houses.

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