大象传媒

鈥淭his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jane Hart from Hastings Library on behalf of Joy Millbourn, copied directly from her typed story, and has been added to the site with her permission. Joy Millbourn fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions鈥�

The Landmine Experience

I cannot recall exactly when or even the time of year but it was at the beginning of the bombing campaign by Germany. We had temporarily had to give up spending our nights in the air raid shelter in the garden since it was filled with water and instead spent the time in our dining room. This had been cleared of the usual table and chairs and instead housed a couple of mattresses and armchairs. We (my mother and myself) were joined each evening by the woman who lived next door since her husband worked on one of the London newspapers and was away each night, leaving her alone.

It was early evening but a heavy raid had already commenced, producing the usual hum of enemy aircraft and gunfire from our forces on the ground. We tried to keep up light conversation but every so often the whistle of a falling bomb forced us to realise our dangerous position. However, little did we suspect that slowly and silently disaster was approaching. The landmine arrived by parachute!

I have no recollection of the explosion itself 鈥� someone suggested I was probably temporarily stunned, but whatever the reason my first awareness of trouble was seeing our radio, which had its back to the window, flying across the room followed by large pieces of ceiling falling on our heads and then breaking glass which seemed to go on forever. At first we all just sat looking at one another until the lights went out and then we simply felt concern for our friends, neighbours. We were all right physically but where had it fallen. We found a torch, part of our air raid equipment so close at hand, and made our way out into the hallway. Here we were greeted by cold air and saw that the front door was now at a very crazy angle and all glass distributed about the floor. Looking to the right and into the kitchen we found even worse, every piece of glass in a hundred pieces and distributed over everything and mixed with lumps of ceiling, utensils, crockery.

Of course the air raid was still in progress so investigating the extent of the damage or even where the bomb had fallen was almost impossible since we could not allow any light to shine out and alert the enemy. We found that in fact our windows had remained in tact in the dining room, where we had been sitting, so we lit a couple of candles. Seconds later we were surprised to hear our local air raid warden calling out to us and walking down the hallway - we had forgotten the front door was no longer shut! The warden assured us all our immediate neighbours were safe and was delighted to find we had a room with windows unshattered where we could use candles and asked if our neighbours could join us since everyone else had lost all windows and within minutes they all started to arrive.

We learned that it had been a landmine and had fallen in the next road to ours, fortunately for us, just around a bend so were spared the full force of the blast. We did not know of the people whose houses had received the direct hit.

In true British spirit my mother offered to make tea for all although this was a very difficult task since we could not have a candle in the kitchen and the tea had to be made by the glow of light from the dining room. The mass of glass in the kitchen did not help matters either but somehow a pot of tea was produced and cups found and shared. I remember wanting to go to the loo and told to go upstairs but be quick about in since the air-raid was still in progress. Going up by torchlight I was amazed to see a brown river coming down! Mentioning this on my return I was told it now appeared to be raining hard and we could only assume there was a hole in the roof but investigation would have to wait until morning.

It was a long night. We had various visitors throughout the night, our open door prompting various air raid wardens, police, returning work force to pop in and enquire as to our health and issue an up-to-date report. We were grateful since the British, renowned for their sense of humour, always have the assuming quip to sum up the situation and laughing at our circumstances made us all feel that much better. We were lucky to have our room that could be lit and was not open to the elements and the teapot was on hand, but nobody slept and the all clear together with the daylight received a great welcome.

At this signal everyone returned to their respective homes and we looked about ours. We found the brown river was the result of an enormous lump of clay that had been sent crashing through our roof and which had found a resting place in the small bedroom at the front of the house. Every upstairs window had been smashed and the clearing up process took all day and still glass appeared from every corner and crevice. We did not have such a thing as a vacuum cleaner. About 6.00pm I remember my mother telling me to stop working and I sat down with a book and my knitting. I remember after a while thinking I would stop the knitting and just continue reading as I felt so tired. I remember thinking I would stop the reading for just a moment to close my eyes for a couple of seconds. I rem鈥m鈥�.b鈥︹��

The Bomb

This was quite a mild occurrence by comparison but note because once again, when faced with a real occurrence we were inside our house and not the shelter. I cannot remember the reason this time but it must have been of some significance since I remember sleeping under the dining table for quite some time. Tables in those days were sturdy affairs and offered real protection from falling masonry, ceiling, doors. Sleeping under ours was not as simple as it may sound since the legs were supported by a crossbar some ten inches or so from the ground. Therefore we had to build it up with pillows and cushions before we were able to place any sort of bedding so it wasn鈥檛 the most comfortable of spots but the shelter if offered also provided some peace of mind throughout the nightly raids. It also had the bonus that has remained with me throughout my life that I can sleep anywhere. On one of these under table nights we rocked with another near miss, this time from the normal bomb which we felt as it buried itself deep into the ground before exploding and again we heard the tinkling of glass as we lost a couple of our precious windows spared on the night of the landmine. This time it had fallen just a little further away and although we also lost tiles from the roof and bits of plaster from ceilings the damage we sustained was slight by comparison.

The Rocket

Fortunately these horrors did not arrive until nearing the end of the war as they really were the most nerveracking things. They were, of course, preceded by the 鈥榙oodlebug鈥� 鈥� our name for the flying bomb which arrived one night 鈥� a night of total bewilderment. Fortunately we did not directly suffer from the event of these missives but that first night is probably worth a mention. We were in the air raid shelter then, one which we shared with our neighbours, and were truly frightened because we could not understand what was happening. We had got used to the throbbing of airplanes, could distinguish from ours and the 鈥榚nemy鈥� but that night we did not hear the powerful engines only a strange rattling, clanking noise, almost like some amateur unfinished construction which suddenly stopped 鈥� then silence and we were all exclaiming, 鈥渋ts stopped and whats happened to it?鈥� We were interrupted by an explosion. With all the constant gunfire we did not immediately associate the culmination of the strange noise with the following explosion but gradually as we followed we concluded it was a new bomb type, perhaps giving greater accuracy but we quickly realised that as long as that awful noise passed overhead it meant we were safe from that one at least. I found myself willing them to keep going and then hating myself for in a sense wishing it on someone else.

The next morning鈥檚 paper of course gave us the terrible news that they were certainly a new type of bomb, one that was launched from France and not requiring the use of aircraft to guide it to our shores. So they arrived both night and day and spotting one of them hurtling in our direction filled me with horror. But there was worse to come and later on we were subjected to what was known as the V2 Rocket. More powerful and which arrived silently and without warning.

By then I was thirteen years of age and at a commercial school endeavouring to learn shorthand and typing some three miles from my home. One morning during class we heard one of these monsters arrive, the severity of the explosion confirming it was not too far away. Standing at the busstop with a friend as we started the journey home that afternoon we heard someone say that the morning鈥檚 rocket had landed in the vicinity of our homes! We were sick with worry, the bus couldn鈥檛 come quick enough, yet when it did arrive we were almost too afraid to make the journey. We hardly waited for it to stop as we reached our destination and leapt off as soon as we could as from the window we had seen a large barrier across the road leading to our crescent. The barrier displayed large letters saying NO ENTRY and a policeman was on duty. As we approached he called out that we were not allowed to pass but on hearing that we lived there he let us through. I remember my legs were like jelly but nevertheless we ran as fast as we could. As we turned into our road I saw one of our neighbours approaching and she called out that my mother and sister were safe although the house once again was in a bit of a mess. So we slackened our pace in total relief 鈥� my friend lived at the far end of the road so it was unlikely that her family had fared any worse. Only weeks before we had been allocated a few panes of glass, not clear glass that one could see through, but a poor blurred quality that were very welcome even so, since they gave us light. These had once again been blown out, together with damage to roof etc., so we were back to square one again but totally unimportant since no person had suffered.

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