War in Peckham

I was twenty three when the war broke out and we lived at Lidgate Road in Peckham.
The first month of the war was quiet, there were five of us in the house and the dog. My sister Elsie and her husband Harry lived up stairs with Joan, my niece. Glad, me and mum lived down stairs with the dog Bonny,he was a whippet.
The day that war was declared was a Sunday at 10am. I had been to a friends wedding on the Saturday and stayed with her mother Mrs.Chalk on Georges road. In the morning ,after we had just had breakfast, we heard men out side shouting "war has been declared", the radio wasn't on so that's how we found out. Just after that the first air raid siren went off and i ran home because i was worried about my mum.
The sirens kept sounding if it was a real attack; they were in spasms if it was a test. At first the bombing wasn't bad. The first month of the war was quiet. The government sent men around to put the air raid shelters in, everyone got one. They dug a hole in the garden and they put soil on top so it didn't look like a shelter. Harry, my brother-in-law, then put in wooden steps. Some people had in door shelters which looked like big tables made of metal, they were called morrison shelters but they took up the whole living room.
The air ships went up to make the planes fly higher, but they just flew under them.
Usually, when the sirens went, we had time to make a flask of tea and sandwiches, because the planes were spotted from far away. We always had bread and butter in the fridge just in case. We brought our bags in the shelter in case we needed them. I had a bag ready all the time; it had my papers in it, i just put my purse in when we went to the shelter.
We kept the door of the shelter open to let the air in, of caulse when the raids got really bad we had to shut the door. We could hear the bombs dropping in the distance and you never knew when it was gonna be your turn. Some nights we had to sleep in the shelter because once they had finished clearing up after one lot of bombs, more planes kept comming. There wasn't enough room in the shelter for us to lie down; there was usually six of us in there.
There were several types of bombs, the basket bombs which set fire to every thing, then there was the doodle bug which fell when you herd the engine stop, then there was the one you didn't hear until it was right over your head, you didn't hear that comming.
One time the Sun Pat peanut factory near us was bombed, the girls were climbing out the fire escape and there was a dirct hit which killed three friends, girls who lived around the corner.
In December 1940 we got buried in the shelter. At 7pm, it was dark. My brother and sister were down the Rosemary Branch and the sirens went. We went to the shelter with me mum and Joan and Glad, it was the worst night. I can't decribe to you the sound , like a great big loud bash, worse than the loudest clap of thunder I've ever herd. We were buried in the shelter, when it was over we banged on the iron until the warden came, we could hear them outside so we knew we were safe. My brother and sister ran from the pub because they thought we had been hit and were frightend. They dug a hole and pulled us out, pulling us up by under our arms, my mum went first, i felt sorry for her being so old an all. The dog came out himself; he didn't have any problem getting out.
It wasn't our house that was hit but a bomb had fallen in front of St.Lukes Church which was right in back of us. We had a little wall round back which backed on to the church ground. The frount of the church was round with a statue of Jesus on the cross. There was glass everywhere. All our windows were blowen out of the house and our neighbours windows were shattered too. Our front and back door were gone. We swept up as much as we could up stairs and down stairs and we stayed for two nights in the house, we didn't want to leave our house and stay in a shelter. We were lucky.
There were alot of people we knew who were killed. I remember them taking the bodies to my old school, Gloster Road School; they turned it into a mortuary for the people who were killed in the bombing. I would see the bodies in black plastic bags being taken there in trucks. We couldn't stay, it was so bad, the whole of London was on fire.
My brother- in -Law got a job in Ruislip then, he saw it advertised in the butchers journal, a job with a house, and we all moved to Ruislip, the dog came with us. It was just before Christmas. We were lucky we only had to sleep rough for a couple of nights.
We took our furniture with us, we had to. We got a van, it was an open top one, and
we took two trips to Ruislip, one trip for all me mum's, Glad's and my stuff and one trip for Elsie and Harry's stuff. A few days after living with my brother and sister we found a house to rent across the road and moved in there. It was lovely and peaceful in Ruislip, we never knew there was a war on, no bombing, we couldn't believe we were gonna get a night of sleep in bed, but i was still frightened because of everything that had happened.
After a few years in Ruislip i got married and in 1944 had my baby, Jackie, in a private little nursing home. When the sirens went off the nurse used to put Jackie under the bed in her cot. Then when the all clear went she brought her back. There were only two of us in there having our babies.
On the day the war ended me and my sister Glad and our husbands went to Westminster and Trafalgar square. We left Jackie at home with my mum. We were so happy, every one was so happy the war had ended. We got lost in the crowd, we lost Sid (my brother -in -law) and he got home on the tube. We held on to each others hands, my husband Wally said "hold on to my hand and hold on to glad's hand and don't let go".
My granddaughter has helped me to type this story and submit it to the BBC.

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