My Recollections of the Second World War or Bombs Fell At Random

“Bananas-Twopence a Bunch!” was the pre-war market in Croydons Surrey Street Market in 1938. I would not see many bananas in the next seven years because World War 2 would arrive in 1939. I was however of an age to experience pre-war life and to experience the war as I started school during the Battle of Britain being fought overhead, and remained in London throughout the War.

In the summer of 1940 even a child sensed the fear of invasion. Roadblocks were ready and barrage balloons, like grey elephants, appeared in the sky and were a trifle frightening. September 1940 saw me enter a school with newly erected brick “blast walls” in the corridors along with the smell of new benches. I was immediately “bawled out” for not having my gas mask with me at all times. Soon there were few children in the school as they had been evacuated, but they soon returned as the places that they had gone to were in the flight path from the Continent to London and were little safer.

The Blitz started and the noise at night was incredible, not bombs but the ack-ack guns. In the morning we collected still warm shrapnel from the shells. Winter 1940 was intensely cold and the snow lay deep with the moon reflecting from its whiteness, quite defeating the “Blackout”. We learned “Away in a Manger” at school at Christmas and huddled around the radiators, they being the only source of real warmth anywhere (“Silent Night” was of course verboten).

I had been told to shelter under the stairs, but this seemed strange advice as bombed houses had only the marks of the stairs on the walls where the stairs had been. An Anderson air raid shelter appeared in the garden but was small and cold and was soon given up in favour of a warm bed in the house despite the obvious risks. One night the sky glowed red. It was Surrey Docks receiving cruel bomb and soon after black charred paper descended from the sky, the result of the destruction of the publishing house around St Paul’s. I remember seeing the vast open areas around St Paul’s, which were to remain for many years. When people decry the later destruction of German cities, I am unmoved. As Bomber Harris said “They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind”.

Children nowadays cannot believe that we went to school as normal. Education could not be neglected, as no one knew how long it would continue. In point of fact, we received an education far superior to today’s. It was not a case of throwing money at the system. It was the magnificent teachers. Brought up as Victorians, they were strict, and as I realised only much later, were being denied their well-earned retirement. Instead of tending their gardens in Surrey or Kent, they travelled into London, not knowing whether each day would be their last. We of course did not share their stress being too young, but I owe them an enormous debt for they did not quit or even flinch.

The war then for me became boring. Not much seemed to happen. I listened to the wireless and heard daily that enemy bombers were active and bombs fell at Random. This puzzled me as intensive searches of the atlas failed to pinpoint this important town target, and of course no one dared to ask a teacher!

I went to see the wreckage of the downed German plane in the centre of Croydon and it made me feel good that one “hadn’t got away”, and someone had paid the price for the destruction around me.

Of course I was unaware of the happenings on the War Front outside of London, but the news of the Dam Busters’ heroics gave even a child such as me a great boost.

Then in June 1944 came the invasion on D-Day and being nine I began to follow events in the newspaper and wondered what was holding up progress at Caen. My mind was soon absorbed with another subject: The V1/Buzz Bomb/Doodlebug. This was a truly frightening weapon. Raids were continuous with no beginning or end. Thus you went to school taking pot luck. The engine cut and then there was a terrifying silence followed by an enormous explosion. Once whilst shopping I was offered shelter in shop’s cold store. I had seen that such rooms and banks’ strong rooms usually survived the raids, but I declined as I feared freezing should the lock jam with the blast. A few moments later I regretted the decision as a Flying Bomb landed nearby and the contents of a grocer’s shop flew in all directions. I was surrounded by glass and liquid was running down my leg. “They’ve got me at last” I thought, but when I dared closer examination I found that the liquid was from jars of pickled onions.

The boys did notice that particular streets were devastated time after time. Knowing that no pilots were involved, we assumed that they could not pass over the last high ground to Central London. We weren’t far wrong, as I discovered about thirty years later. They were destined for Central London but “turned” agents were feeding back false information to Germany that they were falling in North London. Hence they shortened the range and they fell in South London. The hope was that they would eventually fall in green fields, but they only ceased when the sites were over-run by the Allies’ Invasion. What a decision for Churchill to have to take!

Then followed the V2 rockets. I liked those for it became obvious that if you heard the bang (sonic boom) you were alive. If not you knew nothing about if unlike the torment of the V1. In one particular V2 incident at New Cross people just disappeared when a V2 fell in a busy shopping hour.

Soon, it seemed the day came for the War to end in Europe at least. We practiced in a church choir a service of thanksgiving and May 8th it was all over. I was ten. I was still here. People went mad in London and many for the one and only time became drunk, although what with remains a mystery. The stress for grown-ups must have been colossal. For us children it was perhaps, dare I say, exciting. I wouldn’t change my childhood days even although they coincided with the War. Children now ask were we hungry. I don’t re-call it being so. And we seemed to have healthier diet than today.

I will admit that I cheered when the Atom Bombs took the Japanese out of the war. Why only two I wondered, and I didn’t change my mind when I saw local fathers return like zombies after P.O.W. torture in the Far East.

In retrospect things could have turned out so differently. Had D-Day not taken place in 1944 and succeeded, the V2s would have obliterated London. There is no defence to these missiles in 2003. There would have then been time to develop the V2 and nuclear power by the Germans and the then invincible U.S.A. would have been isolated and New York destroyed.

Whilst I found the war exciting, I would not wish it to be repeated. I have spent a great deal of study of the aspects of WW11 and visited Normandy. I must admit that visiting the Great War battlefields fill me with greater horror at the slaughter and deadlock. Of course 1914-18 inevitably led to Hitler and World War 11.

When will we ever learn?

Tony Smith

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