大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War Site for Three Counties Action by Joan Smith on behalf of Nathaniel Paris, a visitor to Dunstable at War on 13th August 2005, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

My most vivid memory of the war is the first day of the Blitz in 1939. I lived in Stamford Hill, north London, and I had gone with two friends to the cinema. We queued to get in. There had been air-raid sirens in the days before, but nothing had happened. On this occasion the sirens went and we were ushered into air-raid shelters. When I looked up the sky was black with planes. After a while we went back into the cinema, but there was a notice on the screen 'Air raid in progress.' When we came out the sky was crimson and we could hear planes and bombs. We wanted to get home but there was no transport. Eventually we just walked and ran the mile and a quarter, with the bombs whistling down around us. There were air-raid shelters under shops, and wardens tried to get us to go into them, but they were so crowded and unpleasant we just ran home - to find father waiting for us at the gate.

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