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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Graham Lewis for Three Counties Action on behalf of Mr Brian Waller and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Waller fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I lived in Luton throughout the war. The town suffered many air raids. They were aimed at the big manufacturing firms in the area, for example Vauxhall (which was making tanks), George Kent, Commer Cars and SKF, which made ball bearings, among other things. A bus shelter near the Vauxhall factory was hit, but as far as I know, there were no serious hits on the Vauxhall factory. After bombs had fallen we used to go to the sites to see what had happened. Land mines were dropped on parachutes and I remember seeing parachutes hanging from the trees.

When the air raid warnings came we used to go into the shelters. We had an Anderson shelter in our garden. I remember the V1 rockets coming over at a late stage in the war. They went as far north as Northampton.

We had evacuees from London in Luton. One of these lads when he left took with him all my Dinky toys — all army vehicles.

There was no disruption to our education during the war.

German prisoners of war were used to make up an unmade road near us.

American soldiers were parked down the road from where I lived.

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