The Life and Times of Wartime 'Kids' of East London

I was woken to someone telling me to get up as we 'ave been bombed! I woke with a start!To find my mother dragging me out of bed,I looked and,. couldn't take it in. Where the middle of the room was,there was a gaping hole through the floor! I was soon to find out that a unexploded bomb had gone straight through the roof and lodged in the cellar!Suffice to say we had to evacuate immediately!The council told us we could have this upstairs flat.So, we loaded all the possesions we could,onto a costermongers barrow,and my mother a friend and me (ken)and my brother(malcolm).Proceeded to push this barrow from,a street in plaistow,(I can't for the life of me remember what the street was called) to corporation st, no:239 west ham e15.these were like terrace houses but split into two flats,with own front door and garden.This was a three bedroom,although,one was nothig more than a box room.By the way,I forgot to say how old I was at that time.well,I was onlyabout 3-3half,my brother malcolm was 18 months older.Anyway, our move was to us kid's really exciting at first.Every thing was a gret adventure,at the back of the garden, was a sewer bank,which had ontop a wide path running along it.(it is still there!)which ran up to victoria park,well almost!Well,we had some adventures,sliding down this sewer bank, on bit's of tin we found.Only to find,after a couple of goes the tins went one way us the other!when we got to the bottom we found there was no seat in our trouser's!this was one of many escapades we had.We used to go out in the street,as the allclear sounded,picking up shrapnell from the bomb's.There was one occasion when,a flying bomb fell at the end of the street.my mum used to say'you know when it's coming down near you,as you count to 7 after the motor cuts out,and you then know how far away it is'.Anyway,this bomb landed on about 8 or ten flat's at the end of the road,flattening them.the blast blew all the windows out,manor rd end of our street,and blew most of the front doors off as well!Me and mal,was looking out of the box room window,which looks out on corporation st.We saw this strange sight of a crying naked woman,coming along asking anyone she saw,if,they've seen her babies.It was'nt till a little while afterwards that,we found out what had happend.prior to the bombing,the air raid warning had gone off and,this woman who,lived opposite where the bomb landed.had just put her two children into the air raid shelter,which was alongside her home.As she turned round,the bomb exploded across the road and the devastating blast,killed her kid's!as well as blowing every last stich of clothing of this poor woman!she must have been in deep shock as she couldn't comprehend what had happened to her kid's!We also had a anderson shelter,although we only used it once.We had gone down to it,got in and,were sitting there when Ispied this creature on the wall!That was it we all ran out back into the flat!WE later found out it was a cricket!But,we still never went back.WE ended up,that is when the air raid sounded.under the dining table,with blankets all round!this was our shelter!Of course looking back it wouldn't have saved a fly!But, we felt safe.There was another very sad time.It was when my dad was home on leave.one of these flying bombs,had been a direct hit on a school, up the canning town end of manor rd.Of course there were no lessons,because of the war but,they used the cellars,as a shelter for the area,It had mainly children and a few adults in there.anyway,my dad,along with other's,had the unenviable task of going down into the cellars and, bring out the body's!I asked him about it after the war how he could get his head round the carnage,and, bring out bits of bodies,etc,etc?He said you had to not think about it,or you would go off your head!To this day I still don't know how he could pick up bits of kids bodies and put them in sacks and bring them out.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.