What a night !!

What a night !!

Living in Caterham, Surrey, during the war was always going to be risky with the military targets of the Guards Barracks, and the nearby RAF Kenley aerodrome whose pilots played a great part in the Battle of Britain. We began to recognise some of them as their planes were so low after take-off, that the wheels were just retracting above our houses. One in particular was Paddy Finnucane with his shamrock motif on the side of his aircraft, sadly I recall when he did not return.
My experience occurred on the night of 16th April, 1941, it was brother’s birthday and we had jokingly penned out the date on the calendar. Like most nights the blackout curtains were drawn, the siren sounded, and in no time the AA guns were banging away. Our next door neighbour came into our house with her baby son, as her husband was on Home Guard duty that night.
After a while my mother and Mrs ‘H’ became concerned because we could see the light of the ‘chandelier flares’ through the blackout curtains. These flares were used by the bombers to light up their targets, which were most likely the airfield and barracks. The raid became very heavy and my mother decided to wait until my father came home from working in London, so that he could help us into the air-raid shelter halfway up the garden.
Being only 13 years old it was difficult not to be frightened, especially as we did not know exactly what was happening outside. It was no time to watch the action, or collect shrapnel when it had cooled.
We were sitting waiting for my father to arrive when everything seemed to happen. I recall that where was a very loud rushing sound like a terrific wind, and then everything seemed to come falling around us. Having collected the ‘Air Raid Precautions’ series of cigarette cards I remembered that under the stairs was a fairly safe place, and so we quickly made our way there. When the noise had died down I went into the kitchen and turned the light on, which still worked, and saw an air-raid shelter up against the back door. My mother very quickly put the light out.
Very soon we heard voices at the front door, some Canadian soldiers who were billeted nearby came to help us out of the badly damaged house, but not before I had retrieved a Dinky model of the Queen Elizabeth liner which came apart to show the layout of the various decks. I will never forget the Canadian soldiers.
It was as light as day with the flares still hanging scarily in the sky as we made our way up the road with a friendly ARP warden. We were taken in to a large basement in the home of a schoolmate, it was there that my father finally found us. He was so relieved, as the police and military had stopped him from entering the house or garden, and so he thought that we were still in the shelter. Sadly, six of our neighbours died that night.
Daylight eventually arrived and thankfully we had survived. More importantly to us children, it was to be a day off school !!!

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