About the contributor

I was age 12 when war was declared.We lived at Cheam, about 14 miles south of London, and on that Sunday morning we were listening to the broadcast by Neville Chamberlain. Then the siren sounded and we all had feelings of fear and apprehension.What was it going to be like? It was deathly quiet outside. We sat and waited, expecting the bombers overhead,but nothing happened and after a while we heard the All Clear.
I remember the start of The Battle of Britain, one Saturday afternoon there was a daylight raid on Croydon Airport. We wondered what was happening. We were watching dogfights in the sky, hearing the whine of aircraft in combat, and afterwards picking up pieces of schrapnel in the street.We all had a good collection of schrapnel.