A London family bombed out in Bognor Regis.

It was summer 1943 and the nightly bombing of London and its suburbs had subsided to quite a degree.
We lived in a 3 bedoom terraced house in Morden, Surrey and were relativly unscathed by the blitz although most of our nights had been spent sleeping in the Anderson shelter when it was not flooded.
My father, who was not called up for military service because he lost a lung due to pneumonia during the 1920s depression era, was employed in a clerical post at the Metropolitan Water Board and commuted each day between Morden and Islington.
He and our mother decided that it would be a nice break to take a holiday on the south coast for a week even though we wouldn't be able to go on the beach because of the barbed wire and buried mines as defences against an enemy landing.
So, off we went to escape the danger and threat of nightly bombing and stay in a typical seaside boarding house run by a mother and daughter.- I believe our family were the only paying guests. ie. my father aged 43, mother(45) my sister(9) and myself aged 11.
I remember the weather was not very good and we spent a lot of time sheltering from the rain under the porches of closed down amusement arcades and trips to the cinema etc.
The weather had not improved very much by Friday, the last day of the holiday. The rain had stopped however leaving an overcast sky so my parents decided to take us on a bus ride to Pagham where there is a lagoon.
The lagoon was great for us children because the barbed wire stretched across the mouth of the lagoon but not round its edges so we were able to paddle in sea water and build sand castles. - a truly exciting luxury!
It was while we were enjoying this freedom we heard the engines of a low flying aircraft just above the clouds. The noise was not considered a threat however because there had been no air-raid sirens to warn of oncoming dangers as we had become used to hearing in the London area.
Within minutes the serenity of the beach scene was disturbed by the sound of two large explosions followed by two plumes of smoke and debris.
It was not until the end of our return bus journey that we realised that something was amis because as we entered the centre of Bognor we noticed a fair amount of sand scattered on the road. - My father thought that it could have been a visit from royalty because sand was scattered on the road to stop the horses drawing royal carriages from slipping on the road surface.
This was not the case on this occasion however because as we rounded the corner into the road of our tempory holiday accommodation, the said accommodation no longer existed!
It transpired that the low aircraft we heard from the beach was a lone German bomber which had flown across the channel, dropped 2 bombs and flew back again.
The aftermath was reminicent of the sights we had become used to in the London area.- ie. piles of rubble and roof timbers.
The landlady and her daughter survived because they were in the kitchen, heard the bomb screetching and dived into the Morrison shelter which happened to be located in the same area. Their cat and canary were not so lucky!
I remember slipping under the police safety barrier to try and find some toy or other I had left in the bedroom. As the bedroom no longer existed I came away empty handed.
My father was luckier with his search because he was able to retrieve a pair of his trousers from among the roof rafters.
Bearing in mind that we were all dressed in our 'visit to the beach' clothing we had to prepare to travel back to London by train a day earlier and were not exactly dressed for town. During the war, cars could not be used for such trivial journeys and we didn't own a car anyway.
We made our way to the railway station and waited in the station buffet for the next London train with very little luggage or clothing. - I remember that the experience finally got to me and started feeling a little tearful whereupon a lady sitting at the next table gave me a black, Queen Victoria penny.
I must have slept for most of the train journey back to London because my final memory of that day was of people looking at us on the underground because of our inappropriate clothing.

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