大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from CSV Solent on behalf of Patricia Walmsley and has been added to the site with her permission. Patricia Walmsley fuly understands the site's terms and conditions.

Early on in the war, when I was 9 years old, our next door neighbour, her three children, my mother and I went for a picnic to a wooded area about six miles north of Southampton. When the sirens sounded we were not too concerned, but unfortunately it was the day Southampton was to have its first daylight bombs, although not too serious. However, the gunfire hit a German plane which passed over our bit of wood, machine-gunning all the way down. It crashed less than a mile away!

When the all-clear sounded, the picnic was forgotten and we hurried down the lane for the bus. The sirens then sounded again and we took cover in the village school air-raid shelter. There was no further gunfire or sound of bombs and when the all-clear eventually went, we continued home.

It transpired that a bomb had hit a petrol station and the locals all crowded out to see, making it difficult for the emergency services to work; so the second siren had sounded in order to get everyone out of the way!

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