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This story was submitted to the People War’s site by Amanda Wu of CSV Media on behalf of Leon Baldock and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

A direct hit
During the blitz we were living by the Minories. One night we were sheltering underneath the Aldgate bus depot. There was my mum, my younger brother David, my baby sister Jo and me — I was 7 years old.

There was a direct hit on us.

The lights went out. Everyone screamed and panicked.

We saw a small light nearby the entrance which was covered in rubble. Suddenly my dad appeared.

He grabbed my brother David and put him in the gutter where there was running water to protect him from the fire. Then dad turned to help mum, Jo and I to climb out and to find a pram. All the prams were by the outside of the depot and had been damaged in the hit.

I was so scared. There were fire engines everywhere, bells were clanging, fire was raining down on us, people in uniforms were screaming and the noise was deafening. I thought I was in hell.

My mum put Jo into a pram and told me to hold on to it. My dad went to get David but he was gone. My dad turned white he was so distraught. He went to go and find David and I went with my mum to safety. Instead of running towards the river we ran towards the city. Every time we came across a hose that was leaking my mum made us run into the water to protect us from the fire. We got the hood of the pram all wet too for the baby.

Eventually we found some people who took us into a church and into a crypt. We had to stay there overnight. I nearly killed myself that night because I was supposed to sleep on a stone slab and I kept falling off it. In the end, I went to sleep underneath the slab with just my hands to put under my head.

In the morning we went back home.

My dad was missing for 3 days looking for David. It turns out some soldiers who were on leave had found David and assumed his parents had been killed. They took him to a family in North London which is where Dad found him.

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