MUM'S WAR MEMORIES 5

THE RAID 1940

One night the siren went, my mother put Rodney, a few months old by now, in an old tin bath, Rene carried Bryan out (still asleep) wrapped ina blanket and we settled down in the shelter when my mother suddenly remembered she had forgotten the 'black bag'. This was a bag she kept her bank book, insurance papers etc in so she said she would run back for it. Jast as she was coming out of the house a landmine dropped on All Saints Church in Heneage Road. It was just at the back of us because the Cordage Factory at the back of Convamore Road had mostly spare ground so there was nothing to stop the blast.

The bomb blast knocked my mother onto the outside tap, blew our windows in and knocked the tiles off the roof at the back of the house over my bedroom.

When the 'all clear' was sounded Mum said, "Run and see if old Mr & Mrs Horton (who lived next door but one) are alright. I knew she was badly shaken but I now marvel that a child of eight should be sent at 4 am in the dark to see if two very old people were still alive after the raid. I can't remember feeling afriad, so I ran up their back garden, the door was open so I went in. They were sitting there, one either side of the fireplace (with no fire) surrounded by debris. I asked if they were OK and I shall always remember Mr Horton saying "Now some people are walkers and some people are talkers". I didn't know what he was talking about so I ran back home and related what he had said to my mother and Rene who burst out laughing. I have since realised he must have been senile or perhaps he was just badly shocked.

Rene put my mother to bed and when I went down the passag to my bedroom (over the washhouse) I saw that my window was out and the bed was covered in soot and broken tiles but I shook off as much as I could and got into bed, then I realised I could see the stars! Mum was ill in bed for a week or two. Dr Riggall kept coming so I imagine his bill would have been a worry. She shook periodically after this for years.

My grandfather had to be a 'fire watcher'. He had to go and sit in a paint factory all night in case an incendiary bomb fell on it and it went up in flames. Well not long after our house was bombed the factory burned down. Mum said, "I imagine he went to sleep". He was 63 years old after all.