大象传媒

As told by Mary Crane

I had two children to look after, my husband was working away, building aerodromes (he had failed the military medical). I spent quite a time in the Anderson shelter: it was very damp and cold in there.
When the doodlebugs first came, we didn't know what they were, but we soon found out. When the engine cut out, we didn't know where it would drop.
My husband was working in Christchurch, and my daughter was only two months old. I went down there for a year. My parents were bombed out, but they wouldn't come with us.
Doodlebugs and V2s were horrible: V1s you could take cover with some knowledge of where it was going, but not with the other two.
A lot of life was making do with not nearly enough. I made stews with vegetables and a marrow-bone: I had a good butcher. I made soup from dried beans and omelettes from dried eggs. Four ounces of butter, one pound of sugar, little bits of this, little bits of that. I don't think about it much, I'm just so glad I survived.
The Blitz started on a Saturday, and they hit the gas works at Beckton. You couldn't even make a cup of tea. A doodlebug came down on Cave Road, hit Anderson shelters and killed people. Another hit the bus station. My sister was in the forces and she came home on leave. My husband went to the Red Cross and went to Queen Mary's Hospital in Stratford, and used to be there all night. One night he was called to my mother's place in Fenton's Avenue. One day my husband came home and said, "You ought to see what Hitler's done to your mother's house." I went there as fast as I could. Luckily, she was in the Anderson shelter. All the windows were in, and the internal walls were down. He was injured by flying glass. Our doctor lived in Balaam Street, and worked in the same hospital, and she took care of him.

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