大象传媒

This story was submitted on behalf of Tony Catherall by a volunteer from CSV London. He has given his permission.

I was born in Sydenham, SE26 in 1936 my memories of the Blitz were Ack-Ack guns on the allotment at the top of Broseley Grove where we lived. Also being taken out by an Elderly Uncle who had been injured in the first War and seeing the huge holes in the roads from the unexploded bombs.

My father worked for the Gas board his job was to go into the bombed buildings and get the gas turned off to stop more fires occurring. He often had to crawl into basements to seal up mains with a mixture of rubble and mud to seal the pipes; one of the unsung heroes.

My father had built a shelter in one of the downstairs rooms of beams to help us if the house collapsed. My mum and I stayed in Braintree in 1941 with father鈥檚 cousins but we were not there long as she wanted to be with Dad. We were lucky as our house was still standing as the square of houses further down the road was a pile of rubble.
I remember 20th January 1943 a German bomber blew up the school in Brownhill Road Catford. Tried to bomb the Gas holders at Sydenham Gas works then came up Sydenham High Street just as many us had come out of Adamsrill Road School to go home to lunch. His Machine guns fired but shop keepers pulled us indoors.

We had an Anderson Shelter on the garden when the Doodle bugs started they would come up the line of gardens. Many a time I would have to pull mothers fingers off the fence as she stood there petrified to get her into the shelter.

One day my father was driving his gas van from Beckenham to Penge as he approached Clockhouse a Doodle Bug engine cut out he told me he dived under the van. The bomb hit the ground on the other side of Clockhouse Bridge. He escaped unhurt and was one of the first on the site to help the injured.

I think it was in the year of the war that we received Food Parcels from a family in Durban South Africa. The tins of fruit were wonderful unfortunately over the years we lost touch with the family. I would like to thank them for the generosity in our hour of need.

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