大象传媒

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Three times we were nearly bombed by doodlebugs, two landed during the day one on a Sunday. Once we were in the passage of the house and all the windows came in at the back and the front door blew open, we were kids playing in the passage. The second time was on a Sunday and the same thing happened. We were in the Morrison shelter (that is two plates of iron, one at the bottom and one at the top with a mattress in the middle in a cage) My brother and myself were in there and again all the windows came in although I think the door stopped close that time. The family was down the shelter.

The third time we were up Whipps Cross in Epping Forest and were at a boating lake. We looked up and saw a doodlebug coming towards us, so we started to run, my brother, myself, the yacht we had been sailing and our big dog. We got into the shelter and the bomb actually went into the pond where we had been standing a few minutes before. I remember mud coming down and people falling over. We went home shakily and hid in our coal cellar.

I remember VE day. Everyone went down to the waste ground where the bombed houses had been and where they had put up fences. Everybody pulled all the fences down and in the roads they built huge bonfires. Some people made sort of Guys like Hitler and stuck them on top of the bonfires. It was like a glorified bonfire night and there was a big party in the street with everyone dancing and singing - service men, everybody.

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