大象传媒

I remember as a child several raids, where doors were blown off in our house, and windows shattered. German bombers having been deterred by the intense anti aircraft barrage close to london turned for home, then released their bomb loads over Essex and Kent. Most of my memories of the first years of the war were of these raids.
But the 19th. September 1944 is the date that will forever stay in my memory. This was just before my 12th birthday. A couple of doodlebugs had been launched over the North sea, by German Bombers. One fell in South Hornchurch, the other in the garden two doors away from us. We lived in Great Gardens Road. I was in bed upstairs with my Uncle, who had been recently bombed out in Ilford. The siren sounded ( it was about 2.30am) Suddenly my Dad shouted "Take cover this one is for us". He had stood by the back door and saw the V1 gliding in. So my uncle and I got under the bedclothes. I saw the flash but not the noise of the bomb going off. The next I remember was a falling motion,then nothing, for I must have been knocked unconcious by the house collapsing.When I came to I found we were both trapped by the wreckage. But it was still dark. We waited a long time before anybody came. One of the men said they had been busy with the other V1. All the time we were buried I could hear someone moaning close to my head. It was my Dad buried further down. He was very badly injured, but strange I did'nt have a scratch. It was 6 hours before the rescue people got my Dad out. He was taken to Hospital. There he stayed for 3 months. My Mum was killed instantly by the debris. My Uncle vanished after he was rescued, no doubt suffering from shock having survived a second bombing. I never saw him again. Once rescued I was taken to a surface shelter nearby, and later that morning a friend of the family took me to her house. There was no counselling in those times. Later I saw my Dad in Hospital(he thought I was dead). Then I was sent to this friends sister in Cornwall, where I stayed until late December when Dad and I were reunited when he came out of Hospital.

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