Close call in Redhill

I was 15 when the war started and I can remember the first day, as I was out walking with my sister then the sirens started. A milkman was delivering the milk and he stopped to unharness his horse. We hurried home to listen to the wireless. Eventually we heard that an unidentified aircraft had been seen over the channel! The whole of the South was on red alert, but we later found out it was one of our own.

My father was in the RAF VR - because he was 50 years old - he was called up to serve his time in London on the Horse Guard Pararde with the Balloon Barrage.

In Oct 1940, I lived with my mother and one evacuee in a flat in a rather large house in Redhill, and as my sister's husband was away in the army, she came to stay with her daughter. One night my mother was doing her voluntary work at the services canteen and we were in the house, when the dreaded sound of the siren went - we called it Big Bertha. An AckAck gun that was run on the railway lines (I believe between Salford and Horley) went into action, when we heard this bomb whistling through the air and land just outside the house. I had gone downstairs to get the cat in and was blown down a few steps. My niece and the evacuee who shared a bedroom, managed to jump out of bed just as a large wardrobe fell across their beds. Fortunately no one was hurt, but we had to leave the house straight away, never to return again. We spent that night in a neighbour's house, and after that a very grand lady and her daughter took us in, until we found another flat. The bomb weighted over 500lbs - big for those days and it went down 50ft and 22ft across.

At 17 I was too young to get into any of the 3 military services, so I joined the National Fire Service (N.F.S) I had to do duties of 48 hrs in the control room - not continuously of course - then I had 24 hrs off. I was stationed in Reigate, Redhill Horley, Leatherhead, Elstead sub Division and Divisional HQ in Betchworth. We had lots of duties and making our own way home after a busy ngith wasn't much fun.

My mother used to catch a bus early in the morning, about 7.30 from Redhill to Reigate, so she could join the queue for food for the cat. We used to chat the butcher up where we were registered, for a couple of ectra sausages or a bit of offal that wasn't on the ration. You could buy whale meat that we used to soak vinegar to get rid of the fishy taste.

I met my husband, who was in the RAF in Decemeber 1943 and we got married in July 1945. Unfortunately he died earlier this year, but we have a lovely son and daughter and between them 7 grandchildren.

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