大象传媒

I was nineteen when war was declared, and by 1940 when the blitz started I was a young mum with a little baby. I was living in Rotherhithe, South East London, between the docks and the railways, both of which being prime targets for the enemy were very heavily bombed. We had 56 consecutive nights of heavy bombing. We could hear the drone of the bombers coming over, wave after wave of them. Then the incendiary bombs would drop causing fires everywhere and lighting up the targets. I remember being in an air raid shelter the night the City of London and St. Pauls was bombed, and the glare from the fires was bringt enough to read by.

After incendiaries, cane the real heavy bombs, whistling down from the sky so that I lay on my son and covered our heads and held my breath till the explosion, usually very near, and all the timethe anti-aircraft guns were firing with shrapnel flying everywhere.

One day, I got caught in a heavy daylight raid. It was a month before my son was born. My husband was on leave from the Army and we banged on doors seeking shelter but everybody was in their Anderson Huts and couldn't hear us. And as the bombs dropped I was lying on the ground to avoid the blast and looking up, the plabes which must have evaded the balloon barrage, looked frighteningly near and I could actually see the bombs falling.

In 1941 I was 21 years old with a little son. My husband was away inthe Army and most of my contemporaries were either serving in the forces or on vital war work, and much as I loved my little boy, I did feel rather lonely and a bit out of things.

Although we still had to be prepared for the warning and raids at night, the daylight bombing seemed to have stopped, so when an excellent day nursery was opened near my home, I decided after much thought, to become more involved in the war effort.

Having ensured that my son had settled down happily witht he other little one, and that he would be well cared for, I made my way to the employment bureau and was directed to a factory to be a crane driver.

I was a bit apprehensive on hearing this, and was horrified when I saw the little cabin high above the shop floor with the masses of huge moic=sy machinery underneath. But, donning my issue of bib abd brace overalls, I took a deep breath and climbed the ladder in the wake of the man who was to teach me.

Cranes, outdoors on building sites, seem to have plenty of room to manouvre, but I had to weave my loads in and out of the machinery and great care and concerntration was needed. Had I caught the hooks in any of the plant being able to life several tons, I ccould have casued some serious damage. Also travelling up and down the shop, I was often carrying loads high in the sir and very near power lines, and if I moved a little too much either way, could bring all work in the shop to an abrupt standstill, as I found to my embarrassment, during my probabtionery period.

with men working below on the shop floor and vessels of hot molten lead beneath me I was very aware of the safety factor, especially when I was told that my predecessor had decapitated a man!

Among my duties, I loaded lorries, moved huge drums of cable, carried, very carefully, extremely shallow pans of oil, helped the men equip the machines in the places they couldn't reach and many other tasks.

Because it was so noisy, all work was done by hand signals, and I learnt to synchronise my levers until I was spot on.

I very much enjoyed my job, there was a good spirit among the workers, and I felt I was doing something worthwhile at that time.

My little son was happy and thriving, till the day the sirens went and we heard the drone of bombers overhead and the shuddering of bombs dropping, not too far away. I climbed down from my cabin and was told one had dropped in Deptford High Street, which was very near the nursery.

I grabbed my coat and still in my overalls got there as fast as I could, and found that the toddlers had been sitting happily on their potties and were quite alright, although there was blast damage quite near.

I felt very guilty at having left him and certainly couldn't do so again, so I didn't return tot he factory and my little contribution to the was effort came to an end.

I was sorry to leave, but I still have my crane drivers certificate,as a momento of those wartime day's.

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