大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website by Pam Riding of Kirklees Libraries and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
The bombing happened on the evening of Thursday 12th December 1940 at 7.30 pm. A row of terraced houses, numbered between 72 and 82, Sunny Bank, Wakefield Road was bombed.
My father lived at number 82 along with my sister. Ironically she had moved to Dewsbury from Birmingham along with her children as she felt it would be safer. Her husband, John, was serving in the navy.
On the night of the bombing, Ellen had gone to the cinema with her other sister and had left the children in the care of her brother-in-law so they were very lucky.
When the air raid siren sounded, my father went to the shelter but he felt cold so he went back to the house to fetch his coat and this was when the bomb hit the houses. He was trapped in the rubble for a number of hours until an air raid warden came to his rescue. Fortunately, he didn鈥檛 suffer any great injury. It was a miracle that he wasn鈥檛 killed.
Most of the other residents went to another air raid shelter and only suffered shock and minor injuries. I came home on leave from the army after the bombing happened and I was able to see the damage. The family were forced into different accommodation and the house was never rebuilt.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.