Saturday September 7th 1940

In 1940 I was ten and my older brother Bob aged 13 took me to Stepney from our home in Barking, East London to see one of his school friends. We went on September 7th. Unknown to us, Goering had chosen that date to switch the Luftwaffe attack to London. At 4.56 pm the sirens went. Bill, the friend, Bob my brother, and I went onto the roof of the Methodist Central Hall where Bill's father was the minister, to see what could be seen. At first nothing, then we saw formations of bombers making our way. This was more like it, a bit of excitement! The ack ack was sporadic but we saw a plane dive towards the docks and for no apparent reason it disappeared in a cloud of smoke and the bang came later. A few minutes later Bill's father rushed up and told us to go to the shelter in the basement. We hadn't been there more than twenty minutes when we were marshalled into a small corridor which was cramped by the underside of a concrete staircase. Ten minutes late we were led out. The route out to the road took us past one of the entrances to the main part of the Central Hall. There was a terrific smell of burning and looking back, the whole place was aflame and in the few seconds it took to go past, part of the roof fell in.
Shortly afterwards the All Clear sounded. Bob decided we ought to make our way home. We had come by underground and bus. But no buses were running, fires and demolished buildings were everywhere. We managed to get a train but after a couple of stations it stoppped, luckily in a station, and we were told that the lines were closed because the track was impassible. Somehow Bob found a way towards home. Travel in those days was mainly by underground. You knew your own station, and where you got out, but what lay between was a mystery. We finished up in Ilford. This was a good way from the docks and the bombing. We caught a trolley bus back to Barking and walked home. By this time it was half past nine. Our parents must have been worried but as on so many wartime occasions, they hid their fears so that we might live as normal a life as possible. The important thing was that we were O.K.
The war went on for five more years. There were lots of incidents with conventional bombing - an oil bomb dropped on the other side of our semi-detached house, another H.E. fell five doors up the road, and a second on another occasion four doors away. Land mines created great swathes of open spaces. In 1944 doodlebugs roared overhead - thankfully, if the roaring stopped you dived for cover! A V2 rocket blew my father's church to bits. But in a curious way you became hardened. As a young boy it was often exciting. But all that came later and gradually. The first London raid on the afternoon of Saturday September 7th was an experience that is as sharp in my memory as the day it happened.

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