大象传媒

I still have very vivid memories of the evening of 16th October 1940 when our house was hit by a parachute mine. I was seven years old at the time and living with my family in St. Marys Road in Braintree. We had reinforced the coal shed at the back of the house to serve as an air raid shelter. The family was in the shelter when at about 8.30 my father came in and said "There's something about". He could sense that something was about to happen. Two parachute mines were dropped and seriously damaged our house and the four houses that were linked to it. We came out after the raid and my sister and I were sent to spend the rest of the night in a cellar at Ushers Farm. The next day we were sent to an aunt in Maldon and started school there the following Monday. I have retained a keen interest into the events of that night and have researched the Essex County Constabulary records. Our mines caused injuries to 23 people and were part of a series of drops in Essex that night.
Our family were rehoused by Braintree Council later that year and remained in that house until our original house was rebuilt in 1947. When we returned, my mother renamed the house, "Denruter" - just read it backwards for my mother's message.

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