大象传媒

I was two when it started and seven when it finished. I remember VE Day celebrations and a street party in Honeywood Road in Harlesden. Tables were set up near the air raid shelters. The Mayor and Mayoress of Willesden dressed up as a honeysuckle and a bee and sang the song 鈥淵ou are my honeysuckle and I am the bee鈥�.鈥�, and I can remember we were laughing all the time as their costumes were so hilarious.

My Mum wouldn鈥檛 allow us to be evacuated; there were four of us. I had a twin brother, and elder brother and sister. Mum wanted us all together, she wouldn鈥檛 let us go.

My road, Ranelagh Road, also had air raid shelters. We had our own Andersen Shelter in which we sometimes had to spend days. You had to drop down into the ground, it was half in and half out of the soil, and covered with soil. Inside I can always remember, there were blue striped mattresses and pillows, no pillowcases, just blankets. We was only small, it was such a vivid part of life down there. One of the treats we used to have was Mum would make Cadbury鈥檚 drinking chocolate.

The house we lived in was converted into two flats; we lived in the top one. We had a very old wooden kitchen table, my uncle made it as a wedding present for Mum and Dad, it was really thick. If we heard the air raid siren, which was in the Post Office down the road, we had to hide under this big wooden table. There was me and my twin and my other brother and sister.

I can see this till today, we could see the 鈥榖uzz bombs鈥�, or doodlebugs, rockets with wings on them. While they were making a noise we knew we were safe. We had one land five doors away and all our windows were blown out. At first I felt frightened but soon it became part of life.
My Mum heard about the buzz bomb hitting Marks and Spencer in Harlesden and she took us to see it. Three was an explosion while we were there and Mum jumped with fright and lost her false teeth. They never were found. There was a horsemeat shop which got bombed as well.
Not far from us at Wormwood Scrubs, where the prison is, they built a camp outside to hold the German prisoners of war. As far as I know it was made of wood with a great big fence and we couldn鈥檛 get very near. We could see German prisoners and the dwellings and the exercise yard. My Mum used to take us there in the pushchair to see.

If we went on the underground trains and the sirens went off, I can see it now, there was bunk beds and we used to stop there. I think it was the Bakerloo line.
My Dad was an ARP and we had a Vaseline factory nearby. Once he got hit by a piece of shrapnel that dented his helmet. My Mum had that; I don鈥檛 know what happened to it.

The school that I went to when I was five was bombed in Furness Road. I can only remember that it was two storeys and when we went back after the bombing it was only one storey.

We were lucky because we used to have egg and chips on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and usually fish on Friday. Meat was a rarity. We had a big range upstairs in our kitchen and on a Friday night we鈥檇 have a bath and used to have Oxo in a basin with bread. I remember this because we thought it was nice and second of all my Mum used to comb our hair for nits.
Another thing I remember is the milk and bread coming round with horse and cart and the fishmonger with his old wheelbarrow. On a Sunday when the fishmonger came round my Mum used to get winkles and we had to get a pin and take the head off and then put it in salt and vinegar.

There was a Lilley and Skinners in Ealing Broadway and it got bombed but before the air raid siren sounded they told all the staff and customers to go downstairs. But it wasn鈥檛 the bomb that killed them, although it was a direct hit, it was drowning because the bomb hit a water main and they couldn鈥檛 get out of the basement. Nobody knows how many were there altogether.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Sara Stringer of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Derek Sebbage and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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