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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Madeline Tuck of the Suffolk Library and Heritage team on behalf of Mrs P Flowers and has been added to the site with her permission

Mr. H Lloyd wrote this Story in around 1960, when he was aged 63 years. His daughter found the original hand written script after his death. Mr. Lloyd had never spoken about his experience so this was the first she knew of it.

I Was There

Yes, when war was declared on 3rd September 1939 I was a full time Fireman with the A.F.S. No.136 Tottenham Fire Brigade. But, to put my readers in the picture of this story, I must start from the September crisis of 1938, for it was then that I joined the A.F.S. During the following year I was able to complete my training for these duties of fire fighting. So when the call came I reported for duty.

We were made up into crews with a pump and a vehicle of a sort for towing.
Eventually we arrived at our Post, there to wait the terror we had been promised. Sleeping arrangements were very poor and did not improve with time. Days and weeks went past, in fact 6 months passed by and all was quiet, but not so with the personnel. They were fed up with nothing to do, and then much to everybody’s surprise an order came round, any A.R.P or A.F.S. with a job to go to would be released from full time duties. This I did and remained part-time till the end. Now the job I had to go to was with the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society Ltd Funeral Furnishing Dept, Woolwich SE18. This was April 1940.Of course the firm knew I was a fireman. Naturally I soon got fixed with a crew and pump and we used to practice, quite often down by the River Thames, waiting for the day that was not far away. To be precise it was the 7th September 1940. What a day. Almost perfect. Blue skies and so quiet until around about 5pm., when out of the blue the sirens started and before they had finished, there, up above, were the German fighters and bombers coming straight up the Thames, wave after wave. Hundreds.Now I was right in the middle of this, doing my turn of duty at my firm’s depot which happens to be known to the people of Woolwich as Commonwealth Buildings, being part of the old Woolwich Dockyard. Here, hundreds of men and women work, food and stores of all kinds are kept, also rolling stock and maintenance generally.

Of course by this time the staff had gone home only a few duty men remained. Then when we were looking up in amazement wondering, down came the incendiary bombs by the hundred also with the explosive bombs in between. Within minutes there were fires in all directions. By now it was the noise everywhere. What guns we had were firing, fire bells, Fire Engines with their bells ringing. Then add the sound of buildings burning, wood crackling and bricks falling and the heat – it was very hard to describe ones feelings, but I’ll say it was nothing short of terrible. We had several fires in our Depot and sorry to say we were not very successful it was just too much for the few on duty. The position was made worse in some cases by the lack of pressure in the water supply and broken pipes. After a while I went down to the River to see if we could use the water and what a picture I saw there. As I stood there on the South Bank facing Silvertown, the River itself appeared to be on fire. The boats, barges and wharfs and behind them, the whole of the dock area was in flames.Flames and smoke as far as I could see. The impression and feeling I got was that of being in a ring of fire and very thirsty. After a couple of hours it quietened down, but only just long enough to have a drink it seemed. Then about 8pm the sirens started again and back came the German bombers again and again wave after wave. This time the bombs were mostly high explosive and delayed action. Of course most of the big fires were still burning and more were added to the list.

During the night we had to take cover at times in a small shelter and I can still remember how the ground vibrated beneath me from the explosion of the bombs. In the midst of all this our milk lorries were already filled and waiting to go to deliver the morning milk, which they did a little late, but all reported safe. At last we see a little daylight and the early morning brings peace again how thankful we all were.

After I was relieved about 9am Sunday morning I had to make my way home to Tottenham, of course there was no transport, nothing only to start walking. Silvertown and Blackwall Tunnel were closed so I had to go via Greenwich, Deptford and past Surrey Docks,which was still burning,and on to London Bridge. What a walk, the pavements and roads were covered with tiles and bricks, broken glass everywhere. Hardly a building or house escaped damage in this area and although this only happened a few hours previously I actually saw some women sweeping their steps free from rubble. So on to Liverpool St. where I got a train home, time about 12.30pm very tired but thankful.

Now my story covers 3 days, 2 of which you know. Monday morning I was to be back to work early as possible and again I must remind my readers my Depot also contained a Chapel of Rest for the dead, and workshops. Some of my fellow workmates were already working with the A.R.P. checking and cleaning for identification of the people, young and old, who had been killed in the bombing and taken to Plumstead Baths, Borough of Woolwich, in great numbers. It was part of my job to go around to the mortuaries collecting the unfortunate people for burial. This was not a very pleasant task for some of the sights were ghastly and this was only the beginning. I served in the 1914-18 war all through and saw a lot of my comrades killed and I do hope and pray that we never have to go through this hell again. I have had enough of war.

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