大象传媒

CHAPTER IV

THE BLITZ

I had gone down to the park, not far from my home on a Saturday afternoon, on my own, a most unusual thing for me to do. I had taken my football with me hoping to find someone to play with. When I got there I was surprised to find the only people in the park were two army teams who were stationed nearby, playing a match. I was a lone spectator. After a while the air raid siren sounded and planes soon appeared. They dashed off the pitch grabbing me and taking me into the brick air raid shelter in the park. I was convinced the Germans knew there were soldiers there and that was their sole mission 鈥榯o get them鈥� and I was terrified! After a while the guns stopped firing, the 鈥榓ll clear鈥� sounded and the soldiers told me to 鈥済o home son鈥�. In my childish mind I was thinking, 鈥渨hy didn鈥檛 they go and get their guns and shoot the Germans down?鈥�

By now the raids were coming more often. Sometimes we would have to get up in the night more than once. During school however we were evacuated to the school shelters in the playground but luckily no real damage had been done locally, so far.

It was a Sunday afternoon and my father suggested we had a 鈥榣ay down鈥� which was normal practice in those days. We hadn鈥檛 been on the bed long when we heard a tremendous noise of low flying aircraft, no warning had sounded. Before we could gather our thoughts, there was a series of explosions that rocked the house on its foundation so much that I thought it would collapse. My father pulled me to the floor, but too late, it was all over. When we looked out of the window you could see nothing but thick brown dust, you couldn鈥檛 even see the house opposite. One stick of bombs had dropped at the bottom of the road adjacent to the main London Kent coast railway but only just missed it. A few people were killed. I have since learned it was a deliberate raid to take out Penge Tunnel, Herne Hill Station and a Battersea railway bridge - luckily they failed. But it was very, very close. If you go to Parish Lane and Station Road you will see houses built after the war between Victoria houses. That鈥檚 where the bombs dropped. The same goes for Herne Hill. If you stand on Platform 4, you will see in the road outside newer type houses between the older ones.

There was a story circulating at the time that the proprietor of a local confectioners was a spy. (His son was in my class at school). It was said he had a transmitter concealed in his chimney and it led the planes in. Later we heard he was caught and taken to the tower and shot. Whether it was true or not, I don鈥檛 know but what I do know is that his son never came to school again. Many, many years later I was told that same story by someone who had lived opposite him during the war. I think there was some truth in it.

Now things were hotting up and getting extremely scary, the raids were getting more and more frequent, especially at night. One night the raid lasted all night and from then onwards what was to become known as the 鈥楤litz鈥� had started. From then onwards the coal cellar was to be my bedroom. This was under the stairs, the coal pushed back and held by some boards and I sat/slept on a chair directly under the gas meter! This was to last the whole of the blitz. This was 1940 and I never slept in a bed again until 1944!

To me, at the time, there seemed to be no let up of the noise night after night and all night, sometimes during the day. The gun barrage was incessant, as frightening as bombs dropping. Sometimes there seemed no end to it. It started in early evening and finished at about 5-6am in the morning. The 鈥楻ailway Gun鈥� was terrifying. It would run up and down the railway line never firing in the same place twice and when it did the whole house shook on its foundations, doors and windows rattling. The uncertainty of it firing was a nerve racking experience. You never knew when it was going to fire and when it did you jumped out of your skin. In particular it caused my dear old maternal grandmother great distress. Every night when the siren sounded she would say with fear in her voice 鈥淚 hope that railway gun doesn鈥檛 go off tonight鈥� and if it did she鈥檇 cry out. The naval guns at Woolwich were another problem, they would go with a deep 鈥榳hoof, whoof鈥� again causing the house to shake violently. Bombs dropped near and far. You instinctively ducked when you heard the whine of the bombs and waited for the dreaded earth moving crunch and explosion. The drone of approaching aircraft instilled fear as well. I sat there night after night with rubber ear plugs in my ears waiting for what I thought was the inevitable - my demise! I remember thinking as a ten year old 鈥淲hy did Hitler hate me so much?鈥� I still hadn鈥檛 grasped the complexities of war. I honestly thought it was all personally against me!

Schooling was badly affected. The school was shut for a while and we were divided into small groups and had lessons in private houses.

My aunt and five year old cousin had been bombed out and had come to stay with us temporarily. One night my aunt was screaming and yelling and making a dreadful noise. I was frightened. The gunfire etc was about all I could cope with. My aunt鈥檚 behaviour was about the limit. I asked my mother if she could stop 鈥楢untie Cas鈥� making all that noise. My mother calmly replied 鈥淒on鈥檛 worry, everything will be alright soon鈥�. I didn鈥檛 understand. After two or three hours of this torture I heard a baby cry and my aunt stopped being in distress, was I pleased, but I still didn鈥檛 understand.

My five year old cousin had impetigo at the time and if she went out she had to wear a mask which frightened other children. We felt so sorry for her, especially being a girl. My aunt and cousin and 鈥榥ewly鈥� born cousin were evacuated shortly afterwards.

One night an aerial torpedo dropped at the bottom of the road killing a popular salvationist who was a living legend. Four houses came down that night. He was the first person I knew to be killed. Another night there was the familiar whine and explosion of a bomb. My grandmother said 鈥淭hat was close鈥�. The biggest understatement ever! Within minutes there was noise outside. My father and grandfather went to investigate. They came back ashen faced, five houses opposite had been completely destroyed. Miraculously no-one was killed. I had playmates living there. Next morning the civil defence chaps were there clearing up and one of the heavy rescue gang said that when they arrived after the bomb had dropped the evening before, they had gone to get the old couple out who lived in the end house, which luckily was not damaged as much as the others. The found the lady easily but not the man who was quite deaf. They eventually found him in the toilet in a state of distress saying 鈥淎ll I did was pull the chain and the house fell down!鈥� I have heard that story told as a joke after the war but I can assure you that was said at the time. I remember it vividly as it made me laugh and I didn鈥檛 do that very often in those days.

Another frightening thing was shrapnel from our own guns which whizzed down and was red hot. We had an outside toilet and either my father or grandfather would stand outside with a tin helmet on if my mother or grandmother were inside. As I was young I had the privilege of using a bucket which was duly flushed down the outside garden drain.

I didn鈥檛 think things could get any worse. How wrong could I be. This carried on until Christmas 1940. Lord Haw Haw the German propagandist told us we would have a peaceful Christmas and to make the most of it as we would get a pasting afterwards. Sunday 29th December 1940 - the raid started as normal but as it wore on it seemed to be getting worse and I had a terrible sense of foreboding. I begged my parents and grandparents to come out to the scullery with the reinforced ceiling. Then, just before midnight, there was a terrific whoosh that seemed to come down our chimney and the most devastating explosion I had ever heard. Windows broke, ceilings fell down, doors came off hinges, we were numbed. A land mine had dropped at the back of us but because they came down on a parachute, we didn鈥檛 have the warning whine that you got with a bomb. After the carnage an eerie silence then whistles were being blown and voices calling 鈥淓verybody out - up to Alexandra Recreation underground shelter.鈥� The sight of very frightened people in various states of dress was pitiful. When I turned the corner of the road to the park I was met with a sight I shall take to my grave, everywhere seemed to be alight. I remember thinking childishly, this was the hell I had been told about. We were ushered quickly into the shelter by the emergency services. The talk in the shelter for the rest of the night was that we would never see the light of day again. I clasped my hands over my ears and waited for the inevitable. It did not happen.

We used the shelter for a few nights then the house being back to some sort of order we were back to normal, me in the coal cellar again even more frightened. It seemed to me that we could not survive much longer, but we did. A few nights later during a bad raid, my mother was not well and taken to hospital. Later on the chief air raid warden (a neighbour) came to see my father to say he was wanted at the hospital and if possible bring a vicar. My father, grandfather and vicar, from the church at the back of us that had been severely damaged by the landmine, set off to the hospital.

My mother was over 40 and seven months pregnant and had given birth to a boy who was hopelessly underweight and was not expected to survive the night. So it was suggested if possible that he should be christened. My father always maintained that if he could, he would have given that vicar a medal for turning out on a night like that. I knew nothing at all about my mother being pregnant. How na茂ve we were in those days. When I was told I had a brother I just could not believe it and wanted to tell the world. I stood at the front door for ages that morning but nobody went by that I knew. I really wanted to tell everyone. Of course I hadn鈥檛 been told what the true story was. He survived and is in his sixties today.

After a couple of weeks my mother was told to take him home and make the most of him as he wouldn鈥檛 live six months. We couldn鈥檛 go back to our old house as it was not fit for a young delicate baby so we were to go to my paternal grandparents, the grandmother I didn鈥檛 like! Luckily it didn鈥檛 last long and we managed to get a temporary basement flat further up the road.

At last we were on our own for the first time ever, my mother, father, brother and me. The air raids had eased off and our new flat had a Morrison (table) shelter. Life was beginning to take on a whole new meaning, it was a long time since I had been so happy.

It was not to last.

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