大象传媒

I lived in Shepherd鈥檚 Bush during the war and there was a goods yard just behind our house where an ack-ack gun was placed.

This meant that I got very little sleep when there was an air raid as the gun moved up and down the line firing at the planes with a huge search light lighting up the whole area. My mother used to pin the black out down to try and keep the light out!

My parents were both deaf and we had to come home from school to tell them there was an air raid on! My dad put big pieces of 4x2 wood on the outsides of the windows, but the Council came along to tell him to take them down 鈥� so he then screwed them on the insides of the windows, luckily we never got hit, so don鈥檛 know if they would have worked!

Everything was 鈥減re-war鈥� 鈥� Christmas decorations had to be carefully saved year after year as they were 鈥減re-war鈥�; buttons were kept in Quality Street tins that were 鈥減re-war鈥�.

At school (Victoria School, Askews Rd, Shepherds Bush) the windows were bricked up on the ground floor and that was our air raid shelter. I spent a lot of time in hospital during the war and when there was an air raid ,the nurses picked you up with your mattress and put you under the bed or cot 鈥� that was all the protection you had!

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