大象传媒

In 1939 I was nearly 14 when the war broke out. I had an older brother who was conscripted into the army and eventually went to Egypt and fought in the desert. He later was posted into the Special Services because he spoke French and became a wireless operator. He contacted people who had been parachuted behind enemy lines. Living in Ewell, we were bombed and had one of the first doodle bugs which exploded in Riverholme Drive, killing 3 people. When I was about 16 years old and returning home from the village up towards the station, the siren sounded. When I reached the top of the hill, I heard the sound of an aircraft which came out of the clouds and saw three bombs fall like a string of sausages. I found out later, they had fallen in Ewell East - they were apparently aimed at the railway line. I was told by my younger brother that a doodle bug was being chased by (he thought) a Spitfire which tipped the wing of the doodle bug which made it crash in the brickfields, which is now part of Kiln Lane. When I was 18, I went to London with a friend from school to celebrate V.E. Day with the thousands of others doing the same thing.

Ida Menard
West Ewell

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