大象传媒

I was only young, probably about fourteen or fifteen living in Isleworth which was about ten miles from Heathrow.

We were at school at the time, we heard this almighty bang and a V2 fell on the railway alongside Greatness Road, narrowly missing some of the factories there. Naturally, we carried on working at school. We were used to bombs. We didn't realise that it was the first V2. We often saw doodlebugs; you could see the vapour trail and hear the engine: a deep throated roar rather like a motorbike. You'd see it going across the sky, hear the engine cut out, the vapour trail would suddenly stop and you'd wonder where IT would stop.
My thoughts (I was only young at the time) were "I hope it's not me".
You'd go down to The Anderson Shelter, hear the bangs. Then get up in the morning and on the way to school find houses gone, piles of rubble. How many people died I don't know.

It made us cry because we knew people who lived there. Why are people like that?

This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Helena Noifeld of 大象传媒 Radio Kent and has been added to the website on behalf of A. Kedge with his permission and he fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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