machine gunning

One dinner time during the war at about 12.00 when us children were coming out of school an enemy aircraft came low and machine gunned the children in Hawthorne Grove Penge S.E.London.There was a school at both ends of the road and in the road was an air raid shelter but it was locked and the kids couldn't get in. I lived in the middle of the street and ran indoors with other children following and my friend June Chapman who lived in a greengrocers further down the street was hit in the back although her sister tried to protect her by throwing herself on top of her. She was injured but survived and there was no way that it could have been a mistake as it was a lovely sunny day and it was obvious that everyone was a child. I cannot remember the date as I was only young at the time but I know it was after 1940. I myself was never evacuated, firstly my Grandmother didn't want to part with me and when she died I went to live with a Great Aunt and she didn't let any of her family go either so we were in London for the whole of the Blitz, sleeping in shelters or under the stairs, plus the regular V1 and V2 attacks later in the war.

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