Memories of a child

War has such an impact on yhe memories of a child.
I was born 1938 so I was only 7 years old when peace was declared in 1945 yet:
I lived in Cricklewood Broadway with my mother and brother, my father was somewhere in Europe with REME. Our flat was above a shop and had a flat roof at the rear which my father had filled with large window boxes for planting of flowers etc. directly opposite was an AFS station.
As young as I was typical of my memories are the V1 rockets - doodle bugs; I used to stand on the flat roof and watch them come over, hear their engines stop and watch them glide down and hear the subsequent explosion. Several landed in our vicinity and we were lucky to loose so few windows. I also remember the V2 rockets but the one event that is so vivid in my memory was the destruction of Pitmans college in Shoot-up-Hill, this was atcked with incendary bombs and the fire raged all night, we were only about a mile away. Opposite Pitmans College were several large dwellings, one occupied by our doctor who was one of the fortunate residents as there were casualties among the others.
At such a young age I experienced these events and can remember them only too well, such is the impact of war.

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