大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War web site by Karen Elmes at the Building Exploratory on behalf of Dolly Phelps and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Dolly was 17 at the beginning of the war and used to enjoy going to clubs in London鈥檚 West End:

鈥淲e used to go to Covent Garden a lot, and we used to have dances there, but you鈥檇 never hear the bombs, because we used to go down steps, I remember it was a big place. There used to be the band banging away, we used to be dancing, come out 11 o鈥檆lock and boom, boom, boom. We never used to take any notice.鈥�

However in contrast to this, Dolly also experienced fear and loss as a result of the Blitz. Dolly lived in Bethnal Green, East London. She used to take shelter in Bethnal Green underground station, where she slept on the platform. She did not like doing this so she always waited until the last minute before going down:

鈥淲hen the warning went I would never go down the tube until I was right frightened and the bombs were dropping round me.鈥�

One day the air raid warning went and someone shouted, 鈥渢here鈥檚 a landmine!鈥� Everybody rushed down the stairs and she watched them running, she didn鈥檛 want to go down with the crowd and stood and watched. The man who was supposed to open the gates at the bottom was not there and in the panic people got crushed. Two of Dolly鈥檚 friends had run down when they heard the warning. Tragically one was killed and the other had her leg crushed.

This story was recorded by the Building Exploratory as part of a World War Two reminiscence project called Memory Blitz. To find out more please go to ^{About links}

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