大象传媒

I returned to my parents in Cambridge Road, Anerley, London SE20 and with them experienced the horrors of the frequent bombing raids. We did at least have an Anderson shelter in the garden and on the night of 17th October 1940 we prepared for yet another night in the shelter just three weeks after I'd left Mylor Bridge, Cornwall.

The noise and vibrations were frightening 鈥� I was only six. We emerged at the All Clear 鈥� we had thankfully survived, but our home was just rubble. The bomb had been a direct hit on the adjoining house. I was carried out by the Air Raid Warden, followed closely by my Mother, to a family across the road.

The warden thought we were the only people in the house, but my Father told him of the elderly lady still in what was left of the flat upstairs. She always refused to use the shelter. They both went back into the rubble, only to find that she was obviously in shock and unaware what had happened. Although it was nearly midnight she had been baking a cake and was more concerned about her cake being spoilt if she left. Fortunately my Father and the Warden persuaded her to go with them to relative safety.

When my Father rejoined us across the road, my Mother realised she had left her false teeth in our gas oven (a habit she had). My Father told the Warden, but he said that it wasn't safe to return. Father insisted, saying 鈥淚t's more than my life's worth to go back without them鈥�. The Warden was very annoyed and wouldn't give permission, adding it was at my Father's own risk. My Father bravely went back into the rubble, found the gas oven with my Mother's false teeth still inside and proudly returned them to a very relieved wife. Thank goodness the gas oven didn't explode!

As told by Roy Henry Albert Hall, now living in Colchester, Essex to his sister Joan Hall (born 1944) now living in Paignton, Devon.

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