大象传媒

Living in London

Barrage balloon sites sprang up on waste ground and in parks, accompanied usually by ack-ack batteries 鈥渕anned鈥� by the ATS. And also sites for searchlights. I can remember the searchlights seeking enemy planes during air-raids. Some children had silhouettes of enemy planes and friendly ones. We all said, rightly or wrongly, that we could identify them. At the end of our road, a large reservoir was built on what had been a grass area, to help fight the fires caused by the incendiary bombs. Mobile anti-aircraft guns went round the streets during raids 鈥� very noisy. The Anderson shelter erected in the back garden was very damp 鈥� water collected in the bottom 鈥� garden tools ere stored there and we slept in the semi-basement. I was bought my first pair of trousers so I could wear them over my pyjamas. At first people were badly affected by the raids and hardly slept. Air raid wardens would clear the streets and were strict about 鈥渂lackout鈥� There were no street lights and torches were shaded and held straight down 鈥� coupled with London fogs, the blackout was very daunting. Our windows were criss-crossed with sticky tape to reduce blast damage. Many house roofs were covered with tarpaulins because of damage.
I was told that one night my parents spent an evening at the cinema (warnings of a raid ee superimposed on the screen but the programme continued) and left to find Hammersmith Broadway criss-crossed by fire hoses and the sky to the east glowed. Dad hurried of the Kensington fearing that the big stores were alight. No buses could run because of the fire hoses. However he later learnt that it was Docklands burning.

鈥淲ar damage鈥� as it was called was paid out after the war, not always at the then going rate. Bombed out people were housed wherever a house was empty, even if the owners were evacuated or in the serving in the forces. A cousin of mine, working at the Bank of England, was killed by a VI or VII. Otherwise my family had injuries but no fatalities caused directly by

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