大象传媒

I was born in Penge in South London and I was 4 years old when the War started. I lived with my Mum, Dad, and older brother in a 3rd Floor flat above Lennards the shoe shop, which was on the comer of Maple Road/High Street, Penge. My father was not fit enough to join the Armed Forces so he was commissioned to work in an ammunitions factory in Streatham, South West London.

At the back of the flats on the ground floor we had a small back yard, where my father used to keep rabbits, which were used to substitute meat for us to live on. There was a small door in the yard, behind which was a tunnel which you had to crawl through on your hands and knees to get to the cellar. At Christmas, so as not to be interrupted by the Air Raids, our family used to stay down in this cellar all night. There was my Mum, Dad, brother and myself, my grandparents, and my aunts and cousins. They used to take all our Christmas food down there and Christmas presents, and they put paper chains and balloons up to make it more of a Christmas for the children. We could hear the aircraft and the bombs being dropped, and wondered what we would find when the Air Raid was over and we emerged from the cellar.

This story was entered on the People鈥檚 War website by Charlie Sever on behalf of Julie Allen. July fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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