大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from CSV Berkshire on behalf of Barbara Webb and has been added to this site with her permission. Mrs Webb fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions

Sunday, 24 November 1940. I remember it vividly. I was aged nine and it was my sister's eighteenth birthday and my grandmother had come to tea. We lived at Easton Road in Central Bristol with Lawrence Hill 'bus depot at the back of us.

We were just finishing tea at around 6 o'clock when the sirens went. My father looked outside and saw all the flares dropping, it was almost like daylight. He said,"I think we'd better get out of here tonight." We all piled into the car and headed for Winterbourne where good friends of ours lived.

I remember well our progress through Eastville and out past the park. We had no lights on the car, but it was so bright we didn't need them. Air Raid Wardens were shouting at us to get off the road, the bombs were already dropping. When we reached Winterbourne, which is high up, we could see the skies over Bristol turning red.

Next morning we drove back to Easton and I was dropped off at St. Gabriel's School, which was still intact. From the front, our house appeared untouched, but there was a two storey extension at the back which upstairs had a bathroom and my playroom. The playroom had a gaping hole in the roof. An incendiary bomb had come right through!

The incendiary bomb had landed in the lap of my large teddy bear sitting in my doll's pram. By some miracle the teddy bear had fallen over onto it and was completely burnt out. The sawdust, which in those days was inside, had extinguished the bomb.

We kept the bomb for several years as a souvenir, but eventually my Mother threw it out, as Mothers do. I wish now that we still had it as a reminder of our lucky escape.

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