She Finished up in the Bush

Nov 1940 I was a young girl living with my parents & younger sister in Gurnard nr Cowes Isle of Wight ( my Father was in a reserve occupation)
We oftenheard the aircraft going over to bomb Southampton, & to a certain extent didn`t take too much notice, to make things a little easier , & in case our parents decided to go to the Air Raid shelter next door,our beds were moved downstairs.
This particular night the aircraft started to arrive earlier than usual, It was though they were folling the line of the water (The Solent)in the very bright moonlight.
My sister & I went to bed as usual.When the guns started firing from the western end of the Island I went right down under the bedclothes, so the noise of the guns was deadened.Later Mum & Dad also went to bed. A while late a bomb dropped in the garden next door (not the one where we could use the shelter) I don`t remember when I woke up but the next thing I knew was Mun & Dad telling us not to be frightened but to get up slowly, for a few seconds they couldn`t wake us & thought we had been killed by the blast. We coudn`t have been in bed all that long as when I came up from under the bedclothes ( I usually "surfaced" during the night)my bed was covered in glass(my bed was right by some French Doors) & I am sure to this day that if my head had been on the pillow in the normal position I would have been badly cut , if not something worse.
Our parents got us out into the hall to get out of the house, but the door was jammed. A neighbour came from over the road to try & help, but both he & his wifehad recently arrived from London(to escape the bombing) & his wife was in abit of a state,my sister was wrapped in aneiderdown, & the man suggested she was handed out of the hall window, which had of course beeen blown out, Dad was half way passing herout when another aircraft stsrted to come close. The man`s wifewent hysterical & pulled himaway to go back to their house & so my sister was dropped in the bush underneath the window. I don`t remember exactly what happened next but I do rember being in a back room of a bungalow over the road,along with a number of other people for the rest of the night, (the man had come back for my sister) Dad had gone up the road tohelp when we were settled, as a stick of bombs had fallen all along the road injuring a number of othr people.

We had to leave our house as it had been quite badly damaged.

Both my sister & I have birthdays in May, so when May was approaching in 1942 Mum suggested, to help make up for the trauma of being bombed out, & getting settled in another house she would try & save up some of the rations & we could have a Birthday Party. The party was scheduled for my Birthday May 6th, we set about inviting several of our friends( their Mums were helping out as much as they could with the catering) & we were all looking forward to having a good time. The only trouble was Hitler decided he would give Cowes a good `Going over` because of the Shipyard at the mouth of the Medina River. So on the night of May 4/5th Cowes had two heavy raids. & if it hadn`t been for the Polish Cruiser Blyskawica in the yard for repairs & two French Ships Cowes would have been in a very sorry state, as it was there was a large number of people Killed & injured& severe damage done . Therefore no Party as nobody could cope with a party & also quite a number of our friends left the Town because their homes had been so badly damaged.

WE NEVER HAD OUR PARTY !!!!!!!!

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