大象传媒

I was five years old when it happened. In May 1942 my father was away from home. He was in the Grenadier Guards and had been at Dunkirk. My mother and I were living in East Cowes with my grandparents.

There were two raids this particular evening and my grandfather was there for the first part of the evening. I remember being woken up by sirens and carried down downstairs by my mother. I remember sitting on her knee, in the living room, opposite my grandparents, shrapnel falling down on the conservatory roof and so much soot and dirt coming down the chimney that everyone was virtually invisible from each other. There was a lull before the second raid during which time my mother, grandmother and I ran to a shelter outside. My grandfather was an air-raid warden and had gone off on duty. A bomb fell on the row of terraced houses including my grandmother's and made a huge crater. Rubble from this fell on the shelter, which was free-standing, causing it to tip backwards on to the road. My mother fell backwards and split her head open down the back; my grandmother sustained a compound fracture of the leg - I got away with a small scratch on my knee.

It was then pitch black in the shelter with people moaning and crying in pain from their injuries. I subsequently found out that many people died in that shelter. It was the worst night of bombing on the Isle of Wight. I have no idea of the timespan, but, at some point, we were dug out. I remember atunnel through the rubble and a mountain of debris on top of what remained of the shelter. Outside everywhere was on fire, ablaise with orange flames, including my grandmother's house. My mother was taken off on a stretcher to hospital. My grandmother and I walked to another shelter at the end of the road, my grandmother walking on her compound fracture, possibly unaware of it until brought to her attention by someone in the shelter who noticed the blood on her leg. After this her leg was permanently bowed. My grandmother and I were billeted to a wealthy woman's house in Lymington.

In later years I saw the size of the crater, which was massive, children, me included used to play in it.

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