大象传媒

It was friday evening the 14th february 1941.I lived with my parents in a cottage at the rear of some shops in Coggeshall Road, almost oppisite what was then a High school, now I believe Council Offices, and in the shadow of the water towers.

My older brother, who was 7, and i who was 5 and a half, were asleep in our morrisson shelter, my mother was having a bath in front of the fire, one of the old tin baths that had to be filled by hand, and my father was in the White Hart, oppisite having a pint. Suddenly we were woken by the sound of an aircraft, which seemed to be very low, and then the whistling sound of bombs falling. The next thing all hell broke loose, an almighty flash and expolsion that blew the windows out and caused other structual damage, that was not obvious until the next morning.

Meanwhile, my mother was screaming for my father, who was there almost immediately and found her covered in soot, but otherwise unhurt. He quickly got us all together and took us over the road to the White Hart, where we ended up in the cellar for the rest of the night.

We spent the next morning inspecting the damage and quickly realised how lucky we had been. Two bombs had fallen at the top of Coggeshall Road, with the junction of Bank street, and one had fallen outside the High School, no more than 20 yards from our cottage, which was no longer habitable. Its something that I shall never forget and everytime I see those water towers the memories come flooding back.

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