Air Raids and Other Bombing

A Schoolgirl’s Memories of Wartime Northenden by Jean Daniel (nee Langshaw)

Many a time they lit up the German aircraft coming over to bomb the Airport and the city of Manchester....

London during the War

The night the docks and the City of London were fire bombed they went home to find their house had been...

A Child's War

Blackout was declared which meant no more street lights. Vehicle lights were reduced to a slit and we all...

Being a Baby in Wartime

Lights from the defence crew in Osterley Park darted all over the sky and the Ack Ack guns stationed in the...

Wailing sirens over Welling

One night a bomber jettisoned its load of incendiary bombs over the immediate area — and next...

Bombings in Cannock,Daventry and Coventry

The Bomb Squad came and defused it but the authorities told us we had to move so Mum & I went to...

Symondsbury, Eton and the Navy

I can remember September 3rd 1939 at eleven o'clock, there was matins in Symondsbury Church, and I went...

Kent (Fortress) Royal Engineers in Holland

He informed us our destination was to be Holland, specifically Rotterdam, to blow up the large oil...

Our Life-Saving Cat

My father was on duty at Fire Brigade HQ at Albert Embankment, where he was a fireman. My 16-year old...

Cow Killed by a Bomb in Leominster

The next day we heard that 7 bombs had dropped on the outskirts of town about half a mile away. We had...

A Country Life For Me

We arrived in Bellingham, where all the pupils were housed, except my brother and I. We were taken over the...

World War 2 Reminiscences

I left my job in the city of London as the office was evacuated to Hampshire, and got a post in the...

War in Peckham

One time the Sun Pat peanut factory near us was bombed, the girls were climbing out the fire escape and...

Childhood

Sister Doreen, Brother Peter and myself Joy. Then grasping Peter, with me holding on to Mum's back we...

Memories

I failed the 11+, but, in 1943 as a pupil at Camberwell Greencoat School the headmaster told my mother that...

Graham's School Memories during Wartime

I started at local Grammar School in September 1939 where an enthusiastic master taught PE and sport and...

Taking on a Man's Job

On becoming an officer I joined the 356 MT Coy RASC in BORDON, Hampshire as a Platoon Officer. A spell...

First Memories

Every month, same day, same time, we took the bus from Islington to the West End to see my Uncle...

A Fire at the Stables

Together with Ronnie and Uncle Bob, we climbed over the boundary wall and into the undertakers courtyard,...

Working for the Admiralty in Bath

When war broke out, Mum and her mother moved from Southhall, Middlesex, which used to be country and is now...

When Were You An Evacuee?

The shop opposite us was taken over by the ARP.It was sand-bagged up and through a small door there buzzed...

Memories of Wartime Mile Cross

My name is Vic Elvin and I live on the Mile Cross estate in Norwich and was a pupil at the Norman...

War Time in South Woodham Ferrers

This, Dad was obliged to do to save the orchard being uprooted to form one big field with adjoining...

Nightworker

I remember looking out of my bedroom window, at the lake in the Clough. As I was being shot at, he'd...

Fire-Fighting during WW2

The lighthouse tower was never camouflaged as the Germans aircrafts when they came across the English...

A Few Recollecctions of the War

We would watch the contrails of the aircraft and hear the guns firing and it was perfect bliss for young...