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With my brother Bob having been the first in our family to suffer a near miss when the falling Messerschmidtt spun down from the absolute heights to plunge into the green at Coulsdon - and just fify yards from him as he fearfully plugged the wedge of gutter and kerbstone to await what looked to be his end - for a falling, twisting object's impact point is difficult to judge, then my lucky escape when staying home from school and thus avoiding the Dornier's bombs at Caterham, and later the in difficulty Mustang's propeller intent on scalping me at Nutfield aerodrome, and then our father's close shave with the exploding 'doodle bug' that plastered him with falling debris at the Chaldon Village Hall incident, our mother's turn to thank - 'heaven??' came about at the big Davis Theatre in Croydon.

In spite of the Battle of Britain and the 'blitz' this famous theatre kept open for entertainment regardless. Here you could watch Ivor Novello stage shows, brass bands, boxing, film shows or a full-blown orchestral concert of Sibelius and Dvorak music. When an air raid alert was sounded, then the fact was shown on the screen. It was the same in cinemas. Some entertainment centres might abandon the programme and people made tracks for home or shelters. There were also periods of lesser activity when 'closing' was optional.
What the 'alert' state was when Mum was watching a film I can't remember, but the bomb that plunged through the great Davis roof luckily failed to explode. A fluke of luck and no mistake.

Our mother's sister also had an unexploded bomb for close company. Living at Sutton that autumn of 1940, the bomb went vertically straight through to the foundations, forcing her from her home. By another fluke the missile went clean through a metal tray on a kitchn work surface - leaving a neat hole!

Bombs showed no respect for religion or for churchgoers either, and in London the Guards chapel full of worshippers exploded in their faces. A fluke was nowhere to be seen here. Avoid congregating was and still is, a first lesson!
Something similar happened at our local Caterham Guards Barracks that autumn too. A sole bomb from a single raiding bomber quite literally found a barrack room full of soldiers laying down to rest after several hours of air raid watch and precaution duty. We at home a mile away heard the long drawn out whistle of the bnomb as the 'stray' raider returned from the London direction, but because the explosion was a dull, muffled and distant sounding noise we decided it was a few miles away. We learned of the tragedy the next day, for of the forty men about to start their earned night's rest only four survived; and they of course were wounded to varying degrees. The fact that the single bomb dropped in darkness found that room full of men who'd prematurely given up on their air raid watch duty purely because it seemed the night raiders had all gone back to France, was a real fluke and no mistake.
And again, the first lesson you're taught in the army is to spead out; never bunch up in groups; casualties will always be lighter when the shooting starts. The bomb in the Caterham barracks room plainly proved the point yet again, as did the much later bomb in the London soldiers chapel in, I think, 1944? Those who should know better, proved wanting and showing a lack of common sense; so they paid a heavy price. It all boiled down to having all your eggs in one basket; drop it and you scramble the lot; bomb it and you fry the lot.

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