大象传媒

I was 18 years when war broke out and 20 years when I was conscripted into the A.T.S. I was living in Surrey at the time with my parents. Before I was called up I volunteered for the A.R.P. and mostly did night duty as I was at work during the day. I was put with a lady called Mrs. Flynn, and although she was a few years older than me, we got on very well. One evening we had a spate of incendiary bombs in the area. They were dropped intermittently through the night. This particular night had been quite noisy and we suddenly realised a bomb had been dropped on a house further up the road. We raced up the road, and to my distress realised it was my house. By that time flames were showing from the roof, but already a steady stream of people were in an organised chain passing buckets of water up the stairs. It made me realise how essential team spirit was and how necessary it was to have a quick response to anything connected with fire. Fortunately the fire was put out before too much damage was done, and importantly no one was hurt. We were rather shaken up by the experience but thankful it was no worse.

This story was entered on The People's War Website by Stuart Ross on behalf of A. Burchett, who fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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