Wartime childhood in Chiswick

“The Chalet”, Roman Road, Chiswick, London W4
This was my home before, during and after the War. Up to 1949 when my parents and grandfather moved to Yorkshire. As I was only 5 years old at the outbreak of the war, I was too young to realise the immensity of it. I was, however, soon to learn how important it was to be with parents and friends.

The loud sirens became an everyday happening, heralding attacks by bombs, and gunfire. We had a mobile anti-aircraft gun that used to travel up and down Bath Road, even at night. A street shelter was erected in our road for the residents. It had bunk beds and had a damp smell, which is engraved into my memory if I enter an old brick building, even now. We children used to take our collection of shrapnel to school in our satchels, for swapping. Instead of doing homework, we watched the dogfights — the ones in the air not animals! Our school had blast walls built outside all the windows.

Buses all had green netting fastened over their windows to stop the glass from shattering. Blackout material everywhere was the order of the day.

We used to visit friends at Shepherds Bush some evenings. One in particular there was a very heavy incendiary raid, although late at night, it was like daylight as everything around seemed to be on fire. The hoses were snaking everywhere.

Some of the worst situations were when the flying bombs — or doodlebugs as they were called — came over. Unmanned, looking like small planes with fire emitting from the rocket in the tail, they had a familiar ‘drone’, a most eerie sound. When the sound stopped, the plane would glide down anywhere and explode.

Then — worse still — was the arrival of the V1 rocket. These had no sounds. We just heard a tremendous explosion on impact. The first one fell in Chiswick destroying an enormous area with fearful devastation.

The people were resilient. An attitude sustained by common interest when everybody helped each other, in all manner of situations.

Our experience was to see the shadow of the bomb glide overhead, then its explosion on the Chiswick Polytechnic; the college was situated behind the houses opposite to our home. Thankfully the students were on holiday! Part of our roof was blown off,
The windows caved in, and blast ruined the rooms. We had, like many others, taken shelter under the stairs. Despite it all — we were alive!

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