大象传媒

One night in late September 1940, five High Explosive Bombs were dropped in the Blackfirs Lane/Chelford Road area of Somerford. Two landed in fields wither side of Blackfirs Lane (I think a cow died from shock 鈥� not a direct hit), two in the field opposite the Chelford Road houses, causing some damage to properties and one landed on the apple tree in our garden. This was about 20 yards from the bungalow where my family was in bed. All the glass in the back windows was shattered and blown into the rooms and the back door was sent to the other side of the kitchen.

My youngest sister, not two years old, was with our parents in the front room and was tossed up into the air by the explosion and landed at the bottom of the bed. My other sister and I were in the back room and the broken glass covered the bed and floor. My father walked in bare feet over this glass to lift us out and take us into their room. It was a miracle that neither us girls nor my father received any cuts.

The previous day, the road had been repaired with tar and loose chippings. In the morning after the disturbed night, when our parents were trying to get the mess cleared up and the damage assessed, my sister ran into the road and fell on the chippings, badly cutting her forehead and knees so visitors and passers-by thought that her injuries were 鈥渨ar wounds鈥�.

We had a large greenhouse still full of tomato plants. The frame remained generally intact but almost all the glass was broken. I can still see my mother trying to salvage some of the ripe tomatoes which were free from any signs of glass penetration.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Lara Phillips and Judith Johnson on behalf of Mrs Robinson and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

The bombs were dropped in a zig-zag pattern and my father said that probably the plane was being chased by one of our fighters or by the searchlight from the anti-aircraft battery at Brereton (situated in School Lane).

About a week earlier, some Incendiary bombs had been dropped in the Brereton area, one at the end of School Lane and at playtime we went out of school to inspect the still smouldering crater.

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