Machine Gunned in London 1940

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Julie Turner of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Mrs. Dorothea Owen, and has been added to the site with the author’s permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Location: Forest Hill — London.

I was 14 years old when war broke out and I did not evacuate with my school, as my mother decided to stay with my father.

We lived in Forest Hill in London, not far from the railway station. Bombing was very very bad at times.

My mother, coming through Peckham on the bus, was machine gunned and was nervous of going out after this incident. My sister worked at Boots in Catford (near Lewisham) and one day they brought in many of the children who had been machined gunned in the playground whilst playing. A friend of mine knew someone who lost his arm that way. Some of the German pilots liked to use their bullets up before returning to Germany.

My two sisters and brother were called up for service, but I had to wait a few years to volunteer for the WAAFS, as a teleprinter operator. The war ended a short while later.

Pr-BR

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