大象传媒

This story has been added to the People鈥檚 war website by Jenny Burnett on behalf of Sheila Pugsley. Sheila has given her permission and is aware of the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

We were living in Luton which is in a valley. Bombing was only possible in the day time - at night there were smoke-screens which came out of things which looked like letter boxes. A bomber did come over one night though, and dropped a string of incendiary bombs on my road. They missed all the houses but ours. We didn鈥檛 have a shelter - Father used to say 鈥渋f your name鈥檚 on it, that鈥檚 it鈥�

There were four of us in one bedroom - me and my sisters. I was woken by one of them screaming - a bomb had dropped through the roof. It hadn鈥檛 gone off, but there was a small fire near the bedroom door. I can鈥檛 remember being frightened. Our clothes and shoes were ready for the next day on the chair. My older brother lifted us over the bomb out of the room. I was more upset about leaving my nice clothes in the wardrobe. We put sand around the bomb and a bucket on top. The firemen took it out later in the night.

After that, we slept under the kitchen table for a few nights. Another brother worked for the RAF ground crew. He came home and kept knocking on the door (the last plane out of Dunkirk had landed) and we wouldn鈥檛 let him in at first.

We had Mickey Mouse gas masks and had to take them to school. I thought they were horrible, frightening. When we went down into the shelter, the teachers would give us a sweet. If we were down there for more than an hour, we鈥檇 be given another. I forgot my gas mask one day - we were to be inspected but I wouldn鈥檛 go back home as I was afraid of being late. In the end I sat in a shop doorway and played truant.

There was a hat factory opposite the school. It had a direct hit and nearly everyone was killed.

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