大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Sarah Edis of the Civic Centre Library - Harrow on behalf of Dennis Pell and has been added to the site with his permission.The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was 9 years old when the war started in September 1939 and remember the announcement on the radio. Immediately afterwards people appeared on their doorsteps to discuss the worrying situation, shortly after this the first air-raid warning sounded.

My family lived in College Road, Kensal Rise N.W.London and I went to Princess Frederica School at the junction of College Road and Purves Road and recall going to the school to see most of the pupils off when they were evacuated. I was then transferred to Harvist Road School and used to run to Queen's Park before school to see the Barrage Balloons being pulled down and after school go to the park to see them put up for the night. From the upstairs window of my home I watched many 'dog' fights between the RAF and German planes and recall seeing pilots who had escaped after their planes had been hit coming down in parachutes. At the age of eleven I was transferred to Chamberlayne Wood Road School until I was fourteen.

When the air-raid warnings sounded the family used to sit under the stairs for shelter. We were given an air-raid shelter in the garden and eventually an indoor one. On several occasions we were told to be ready to move out at a very short notice. At the height of the bombing an anti-aircraft gun was positioned on top of the bridge overthe railway line in College Road which when fired shook the houses in the surrounding area.

My first job at fouteen was at George Philip's the map printers in Victoria Road, North Acton. The first thing they did was to make me the 'runner'and gave me a tin hat and whistle and I had to run around the factory and tell them to get into the air-raid shelters and then ended up sitting on top with the factory warden as a look-out. It was whilst sitting on top of the shelter in August 1944 that I saw the flying-bomb that passed overhead and cut-out and eventually came down in the direction of my home. Shortly afterward an Uncle came and told me that it had come down at the junction of College Road, Mortimer Road and Hazel Road. Although the house was badly damaged my parents, sister and grandfather were all in the indoor shelter and had survived. I was taken to my other grandparents home in Neasden where we lived until we were re-housed. Early one morning on the way to work I was walking along Neasden Lane by the B.T.H. buildings when the only other person about shouted at me to lay down on the pavement as everything shook as a V2 rocket with flames shooting out the back as it passed just over the railway lines. Whilst at George Philip's I and others used to hand out tea and sandwiches to the unending and packed queue of troop trains going off to the war - the railway line ran alongside the firm's canteen.

I do remember going back to the house and trying to rescue some belongings and seeing the appalling scenes of people being dug out from the wreckage and unsafe sides of houses being pulled down. Another memory is of being fed by the W.V.S. sitting on the wall of St. Martin's Church in Mortimer Road. I also recall the unending stream of people making their way to the underground stations each evening with their blankets and pillows to spend the night in the bunks that had been put up on the platforms.

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