大象传媒

WAR - A BOY - LONDON
THE ANDERSON SHELTER
In the long back garden of our house in London we had an anderson shelter, I remember it well, but not its construction, there were lots of occasions when the shelter had to be put into use. The memories that come back to me when I was taken into the shelter are that of a smell of dampness and candle wax, candles being our scource of lighting. I believe that there was a radio and some form of bedding. I can remember the air-aid sirens warning us to take shelter, the crump of explosions, and anti- aircraft fire, searchlights sweeping and probing across the night sky also the distant glow from the bombing, depending how near this was, waiting for the all-clear siren, my mothers remarks such as ' some poor sods are getting it heavy tonight, it looks like it could be the docks. '
Our shelter was behind the apple tree and was reached by an L - shaped entrance sunk a couple of feet into the ground, I'm not sure what covered the doorway but I would imagine that it was an old blanket. The shelter was not a place that you would want to spend much time in, because most of it was suberged into the ground it suffered from dampness and condensation making rusty marks down the interior walls, which were made from curved corrugated iron sheets covered with earth at the top set on a small concrete base and inner wall, so the interior was a damp smelly and a cramped space, but offered a felling of safety when bombing was near, sometimes the garden was not convenient and we would take shelter in the cupboard under the stairs. We lived in a small cul-de -sac with an area of grass in the centre of the houses, there were blocks of flats across the road approx. fifty yards away. On the grassy section in front of our houses another shelter was built, this was a flat roofed shelter probably for the use of the flats. Our family did not use this shelter and I have no memory of it being used much, I can remember going in to look around, it was very dim, there were some tiered bedding along the walls. It smelt quite damp with more than a hint of urine, it was often used as a play area and was not very clean.
The anderson shelter was responsible for the removal of part of my tonsils, this is what happened.
It was daytime, I was playing in the garden with my brother at the time, no air - raid siren, no sound of aircraft overhead, just a lot of running around, I had a piece of dowling in my hand and for some reason or other decided to jump down into the entrance of the shelter, I stumbled, the dowling I was holding rammed into my mouth and down my throat and I swallowed part of my tonsils.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.