大象传媒

I remember the sirens going and my dad saying 'well that's it'. I was 6 at the time so it didn't mean much to me. Then my brothers and I were evacuated to Stewkley, Bucks. On reflection I had a very good time in the village. We were near Wing aerodrome and saw Wellington bombers all the time. When the war seemed to be coming to an end we came back to London. However, it was far to soon. I can remember being in the Anderson shelter in the garden when a stick of bombs landed very close. I was sleeping against the side of the shelter and I swear it shifted up and down in it's concrete bed to the sound of those bombs whistling down.When we came out of the shelter the house was in ruins. Now, I try to think how my mother must have felt. Later on I went to school one day (Newington Green Road)and found that it had been bombed so I had to go home again. Another time I had gone to a mates house after school and was going home late when I saw a V1. The engine stopped and I didn't know what to do. Luckily for me it landed quite a way from where I was. Again, later I wonder what effect it had on my mum, me being late home. I gained a scholarship to Dame Alice Owen's Grammar School and was playing football in the playground after school when a V2 hit the library at Holborn. I can still see the hundreds of burnt books floating to the ground around us.

The war did not have the same effect on us kids as it did on adults. It must have been hell for parents; but to us kids it was an adventure. After air raids we were out looking for shrapnel. Some times we were lucky enough to find a nose cone of an AA shell. Where did all those jagged bits of metal go? They were our pride and joy. Has anyone got any these days? There were bombed out houses to explore. There was so much devastation when a land mine went off. It left so much open ground to explore. Looking back after 60 years, I can only wonder, would I be as brave as my parents were if I had to go through what they did.

Michael Kelly (formerly Michael Greenfield.)

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